Anambra 2021: No electronic fingerprint accreditation, no voting – INEC chairman

• 2,525,471 voters go to poll on Nov 6
• 26,000 ad hoc staff required

The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, at an emergency meeting of political parties and the Commission, at the INEC conference Room, Abuja, last Friday, assured that the Commission is committed to deploying the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) for electronic fingerprint and facial accreditation of voters during the Anambra governorship election. He stated that all voters must go through the electronic accreditation of voters during the November 6 election, warning that no electronic fingerprint accreditation, no voting.

According to Prof. Yakubu, the position of the Commission is that “going forward, nobody will be allowed to vote in any election without successful biometric accreditation.”

Prof Yakubu highlighted: “the pilot deployment of the system in the Isoko South 1 State Constituency bye-election in Delta State held last month was very encouraging.

“… successful full biometric accreditation was 32.8% in the constituency during the 2019 general elections.

“However, using the BVAS in the same constituency during the recent bye-election, successful accreditation sharply rose to 97.4%.”

He declared: “The Commission will continue to deploy appropriate technology to improve our electoral process.”

The INEC chairman revealed that the commission detected 62,698 voters involved in double registration during the Continuous Voters Registration (CVR) exercise in Anambra State.

The INEC Chairmen at the emergency meeting with leaders of political parties, INEC National Commissioners, Secretary to the Commission, Directors, and other Senior Officials of the Commission, including the media, disclosed that the improvement in application of technology assisted the commission in detecting the multiple registration by some voters in Anambra State.

Professor Yakubu emphasized that the regular stakeholders’ meetings are held quarterly, noting at the last meeting which was held on Monday, 6th September 2021, participants discussed extensively the commencement of the Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise. The chairman said that the commission also revealed and demonstrated the new equipment, the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), which INEC introduced to replace some of the older election technologies. He noted that the commission updated the party leaders and other stakeholders on the preparations for the Anambra State governorship election, scheduled for 6th November 2021.

Prof. Yakubu stated that the emergency meeting last Friday became necessary in order to brief stakeholders on the commission’s continuous preparations for the Anambra election and to discuss recent developments in the state, beginning with the registration of voters and compilation of the voters’ register.

The INEC chairman recalled that before the end of the First Quarter of the CVR nationwide, the commission extended the exercise to the Wards or Registration Areas in Anambra State. He added that the end of registration was followed by the cleanup of the data to remove the names of ineligible registrants before the printing of the Permanent Voters’ Cards (PVCs).

Prof. Yakubu revealed that a total of 138,802 citizens completed the registration in Anambra State, in addition to applications for transfer and requests for replacement of lost, damaged, or defaced PVCs as required by law.

“However, in the process of cleaning up the registration data, we discovered that many previously registered persons re-registered afresh.

“As a testimony to the effectiveness of our new system for checking double and multiple registrations, the Commission found out that some 62,698 persons who are already registered voters in Anambra State went ahead to register again.

“These double or multiple registrations are invalid by law. “We have archived these registrations and will not print new PVCs for them. Their old PVCs remain valid, and they can use them to vote at the Polling Units where they registered and probably voted in previous elections.

“The same cleaning up exercise is going on nationwide. As soon as it is over, the Commission will provide further details to Nigerians on the situation in other states of the federation and action to be taken on the matter,” the INEC chairman stated.

He reminded Nigerians that the law prohibits double registration.

The Commission disclosed that the deployment of technology, including the online pre-registration, has simplified the process, and made voter registration in Nigeria easier. “However, the same technology has also made it easier for us to detect multiple registrations,” the INEC chairman said.

According to Yakubu: “the number of valid registrants in Anambra State at the end of the First Quarter of the CVR exercise on 5th September 2021 is 77,475.

“This figure has been added to the existing register of 2,447,996 eligible voters used for the 2019 General Elections.

“Accordingly, the number of registered voters in Anambra State now stands at 2,525,471. “We shall provide a detailed breakdown of the figure for public information in the days ahead.”

Prof. Yakubu disclosed that the commission has already completed 10 of the 14 activities in the Timetable and Schedule of Activities for the governorship election.

He said that the commission on Thursday published the final list of candidates in INEC’s State and Local Government offices in Anambra State and simultaneously uploaded the same information to the commission’s website and social media platforms. He added that all the 18 political parties participating in the election were issued a soft copy of the updated register of voters at a meeting held at the Anambra State Office, Awka.

“We are presently working on the printing of the PVCs. We shall use various channels, including e-mails and text messages, to contact the new voters to collect their PVCs before the election.

“We have almost completed the recruitment of ad hoc staff for the election. In all, about 26,000 election duty staff are required. “Although there are still some minor shortfalls, we believe that we will complete the recruitment in time for their training scheduled to commence on 19th October 2021.

“The training of other categories of staff, such as Electoral Officers (EOs) and Assistant Electoral Officers (AEOs) has been completed, while the training of Supervisory Presiding Officers (SPOs) will commence soon,” the INEC chairman highlighted.

Prof. Yakubu expressed security concerns in the build up to the election.

He recalled that in May this year, the State office of the commission in Awka, was attacked; adding that the main building, collation centre and store were either completely or partially damaged.

He added that also damaged in the attacks were 60% of non-sensitive materials for the election, including 326 generating sets and several Hilux vehicles, which the commission had assembled in Awka. He declared that the commission has fully recovered from that attack.

“The buildings have been completely reconstructed and renovated in readiness for the election.

“All the non-sensitive materials have either been procured afresh or sourced from neighbouring States and our Zonal stores.

“We are working assiduously with security agencies to ensure that such an attack does not happen again,” he said.

The INEC chairman decried that security remains a major challenge to the preparations for the election in Anambra.

He noted that the heinous attacks have truncated campaigns for the political parties, making voter mobilization and sensitization impossible.

The chairman emphasised that Anambra State is not in the usual election mood. He stated that it is in the light of the security situation in the State that the Commission held an emergency meeting of the Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security (ICCES) last Tuesday. He said that the meeting was frank and productive, assuring of the determination of the security agencies to protect voters, election staff, election observers, the media, transport providers and candidates during the election.

The chairman said that already, security around INEC facilities in the State has been ramped up. “We are also confident that the heightened deployment of security officials, which is expected in the coming weeks, will further give citizens the confidence to turn up and vote on Election Day.

“We shall continue to work with the security agencies to ensure that the election is successful and violence-free.

“I wish to appeal to all political parties and candidates not to exacerbate the feeling of insecurity in Anambra State through unguarded utterances and actions.

“This could compound the security situation and make the work of the Commission, political parties, and security agencies even more difficult. It may also lead to voter apathy.

“This moment calls for statesmanship and maturity, hence, the decision to convene this emergency meeting.

“We are confident that the outcome of this engagement will be productive and helpful to the Commission and political parties as we continue to prepare for the Anambra Governorship holding on Saturday 6th November 2021,” Yakubu stated.