Anambra 2021: INEC reveals two functions of BVAS, reviews Anambra election

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Thursday revealed that the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) introduced in the Anambra State governorship election last Saturday performed two functions on election day. One is the accreditation of voters using both the fingerprint and facial authentication. Two, the system snaps the polling unit level result sheets and uploads them in real-time to the INEC Result Viewing (IReV) portal. The INEC disclosed this while conducting an initial review of the Anambra State Governorship election which held on Saturday, November 6. INEC in a statement on Thursday by the National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee, Festus Okoye Esq, indicated that the Commission is awaiting the reports of all officials deployed for the election for an in-depth review of the processes.

The Commission noted that after the supplementary election in Ihiala Local Government Area on Tuesday 9th November 2021, and before the process was concluded, a preliminary review of the functionality of systems, particularly, the newly introduced Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) was commenced. The Commission stated that this aspect of the BVAS functionality performed optimally such that by the early hours of Sunday morning, results from 4,987 (88.5%) out of 5,634 polling units had been uploaded for public view.

INEC maintained that while in the field, the Commission’s ICT team responded to the identified glitches in the accreditation of voters and corrected them.

It added that consequently, in the Ihiala supplementary election, there were no reported incidents of BVAS malfunction. “We will carry out an in-depth examination of the system, review reports from accredited observers and the media and respond to all identified challenges ahead of the next major Area Council election in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), holding on 12th February 2021.

“We shall again test run the system in the bye-election(s) that may arise before then.

“The Commission remains convinced that despite some glitches experienced in Anambra State Governorship election, the deployment of technology in elections is better than the best manual process,” INEC declared.