By Adeleye Kunle
Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria, HURIWA, on Monday, insisted on the need for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to deploy the Bimodal Voter Registration System (BVAS) for the 2023 elections.
HURIWA’s National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, in a statement, also pushed for the establishment of a Electoral Offences Commission so that rogue politicians and compromised electoral referees will be punished and not allowed to jeopardise the next general elections.
The group said it is amazing how desperate politicians approach the Imo State High Court to get a restraining order to stop the deployment of BVAS by INEC in next year’s elections.
According to the group, next year’s general elections is a game-changer and a game over to politicians who have perfected the art and the act of rigging elections and perpetuate themselves in office like Methuselah.
Stipulated in the Electoral Act of 2022, BVAS is a technological system which allows for accreditation of voters through biometrics capturing, uploading of results online, amongst others.
It has been described by many as an upgrade of the smartcard reader used in the last general elections which achieved some results in the country’s electoral process.
BVAS and the Election Result Viewing Portal (IReV) represent two crucial technological advances for enhancing the transparency of election results and upscaling public belief in electoral outcomes
