By ROMANUS UGWU, Abuja

Less than two months to the Anambra State governorship election, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has promised not only to display and publish register of new voters but also ensure that none of the new registrants will be disenfranchised.

The Commission further assured those who applied to transfer from within and outside the state and replacement of damaged or lost PVCs that their cards will be printed and made available to them for collection before the election.

Commission Chairman Prof Mahmood Yakubu gave the assurance in his remarks at the third quarterly meeting with Civil Society Organisations in Abuja on Tuesday.

Prof Mahmood equally informed them that the Commission intends to carry out a pilot test of Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), a new technology that combines the functions of Smart Card Reader (SCR) and and Z-Pad during the Anambra governorship poll.

‘Today’s meeting will focus essentially on the forthcoming Anambra State governorship election holding in less than two months. In addition to other activities, we devolved the CVR to the 326 Registration Areas (or Wards) in addition to the 21 Local Government offices and the State Office of the Commission,’ he said.

‘The physical exercise was suspended two days ago i.e. 60 days to the election as required by law. However, the online pre-registration option will continue to be available but no appointment for completion of registration can be scheduled until after the election.

‘In the next two days, the Commission will compile the register of new voters and publish same throughout the state for claims and objections. Thereafter, we will clean up the data, print the PVCs for collection by registrants and compile the actual register of voters to be used in each of the 5,720 polling units in the state.

‘I want to assure every newly registered voter in Anambra State, including those who applied to transfer from within and outside the state or for the replacement of damaged or lost PVCs that their cards will be printed and made available to them for collection before the election,’ he promised.

On the deployment of technology, the INEC boss said:

‘The functionality of the Z-pad has now been integrated into the IVED currently used for voter registration. On Election Day, the same device will become the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) to be used, first, for fingerprint authentication during accreditation and where it fails for facial authentication.

‘We believe this will eliminate the possibility of voting by identity theft using another person’s PVC. Where the voter fails both the fingerprint and facial authentication, he/she will not be allowed to vote. In other words, no electronic authentication, no voting.

‘We are convinced that the new machine is robust enough to further guarantee the credibility of voter authentication and transparent management of results during elections.

‘Accordingly, the Commission intends to carry out a pilot exercise using the new device in Delta State during the Isoko South 1 State Assembly constituency bye-election holding this weekend (Saturday 11th September 2021). The BVAS will now perform the functions of both the SCR and Z-Pad in the bye-election.

‘Thereafter, it will be deployed in the Anambra Governorship election in November. There will be a presentation of the new device and a practical demonstration of its functions at this meeting. As always, we will welcome your comments and suggestions on this innovation,’ he noted.

While giving updates on the ongoing Continuous Voter Registration (CVR), he said:

“We also presented to you two technology-driven innovations to facilitate the CVR exercise in the form of a portal for online pre-registration of voters as well as the new INEC Voter Enrolment Device (IVED) for physical registration.

‘The online exercise began 11 weeks ago on 28th June 2021. Since then, we have been giving Nigerians weekly updates on the progress of the exercise every Monday. So far, 2,729,819 fresh voters have pre-registered online.

‘As you are also aware, the Commission has been releasing weekly figures of the completion of the online pre-registration which started in our State and Local Government offices nationwide on 26th July 2021. A total of 717,947 Nigerians have completed their registration at the designated centres in just five weeks.

‘With the benefit of technology, the Commission has also been providing detailed information on the distribution of registered voters by age, occupation, gender and disability on weekly basis,’ he noted. (Daily Sun)

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