As part of preparations for this year’s general elections in the country, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC has completed arrangements to conduct a mock election deploying its latest technology, BVAS in six local government areas of Bauchi State.
WikkiTimes learnt that the local governments selected for the exercise were drawn from the three senatorial zones of the state.
Mohammed Nura, Resident Electoral Commissioner INEC Bauchi disclosed this during a one-day stakeholders meeting ahead of the mock in Bauchi due for February 4th.
He said the mock will be conducted in six Registration Areas spread across Bauchi, Darazo, Katagum, Ningi, Toro and Zaki local government areas.
The Resident Electoral Commissioner said that the aim was to discuss and brainstorm on BVAS in the conduct of the fast-approaching 2023 general election.
To him, following the enactment of the new Electoral Act 2022, INEC has strengthened the use of new technologies and online resources to ensure transparency and acceptability of its process.
He said, “These have tested during off-season Governatorial elections in Ekiti and Osun states as well as other bye-elections, where the citizens applauded the Commission for ensuring that the votes of the people counted.
Nura explained that the Bio-Model Voter Accreditation System (B-VAS) is one of the new technologies to be deployed for accreditation through fingerprint or facial recognition.
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He said that after the election at the polling unit, it will be used to snap the result sheet (EC&A) for upload to the INEC Result Viewing portal (IReV) for the public.
“At the Registration Area /Ward Collation Center, the collation Officer will compare the data of accredited voters on the B-VAS with the voters cast to ensure that votes are equal or less than the accredited voters, the election becomes invalid.
“This exercise will give voters the opportunity to confirm their eligibility to vote during the 2023 general election and all stakeholders are invited to witness the events,” he said.
The stakeholders’ meeting witnessed the presence of security personnel, politicians, local and international NGOs, religious bodies, traditional rulers and NURTW with a theme: “No PVC No Voting”.
