The Independent National Electoral Commission has reacted to the failure of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System which hindered a lot of voters from voting in the governorship election in Anambra State.
The electoral body on Saturday noted that it has commenced investigation on the failure of BVAS in some polling units in the state.
The Resident Electoral Commissioner, Dr Nwachukwu Orji, in his statement, said INEC’s technicians have already built an update to the devise software to prevent further challenges.
He said, “The update is currently being installed in the concerned BVAS and we request voters, candidates and agents to be patient and allow our technical staff to solve the problem.
“The Commission wishes to reiterate that in cases of sustained malfunction of the BVAS, the Presiding Officer must inform the voters and polling agents that accreditation and voting for the affected Polling Unit shall continue tomorrow or at another time determined by the Commission.
“With this extension of time and the recommencement of accreditation where the BVAS consistently malfunctions, the Commission assures that no voter will be disenfranchised.
“Our deployment has also been adversely affected by transportation challenges in some locations. It must be noted that on account of security concerns, some of the transporters that were mobilized and collected 50% of their sign-on fee backed out at the last moment, leaving some of our ad-hoc staff stranded.
“Also, some of the trained ad-hoc staff backed out at the last moment.
“The Commission is on top of these challenges and extant regulations and guidelines will be applied on a case by case basis.
“Consequently, we are harvesting areas where voting will realistically no longer take place today. Including places where substantial disruption has occurred, to enable a possible recommencement of voting at another time, in line with extant laws and the regulations and guidelines of the Commission.
“We appeal to all voters, candidates, stakeholders, communities and political parties to remain calm and law-abiding.
“We assure you that the Commission is determined to make all votes count.”
