The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) yesterday in Abuja revealed that a mock accreditation exercise would be held on Saturday, February 4, 2023 in 436 polling units nationwide to test the functionality of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) ahead of the general election.INEC’s National Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu disclosed this at a meeting with Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs) held at the national headquarters of the commission, with the purpose of putting finishing touches to the preparations for the 2023 general election.He said 12 polling units had been designated in each state of the federation and four in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) on the equality of the country’s 109 Senatorial Districts for the exercise.

Yakubu noted that a comprehensive list of the polling units, including their names and PU Code numbers, as well as their distribution by State, Senatorial District, Local Government and Registration Area (Ward) would be uploaded on the Commission’s website.The chairman informed the RECs that movement of materials for the election to various locations nationwide was being concluded.He added that training of officials would commence shortly, while ongoing consultations with stakeholders would be intensified.

He further explained that critical service providers in the area of transportation had reassured the commission of their commitment to efficient logistics for the movement of materials and personnel to various locations while the security agencies had reaffirmed their readiness for the election.

According to the INEC Chairman, the Commission is aware that there are a few issues to be addressed: “One of them is the ongoing collection of Permanent Voters’ Cards (PVCs). The Commission is encouraged by the determination of registered voters nationwide to collect their PVCs and the actual level of collection so far.”

Yakubu stated further: “For instance, in Lagos State, which has the highest number of registered voters in the country, the Commission delivered 940,200 PVCs from the recent voter registration exercise (June 2021 to July 2022) for both new registrants and requests for transfer and replacement of cards.“As of Thursday 26th January 2023, 839,720 PVCs had been collected representing 89.3% of the total figure.

“This meeting with RECs will consider reports from other states of the Federation and the Commission will not hesitate to consider additional measures to ensure that all citizens have ample opportunity to collect their PVCs ahead of the general election.”Yakubu said: “As you are already aware, the Commission has taken delivery of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machines for the election. We have also dutifully tested each machine in our offices nationwide to ensure its functionality.

“The next step is to conduct field tests across the country involving actual voters. For this reason, and in readiness for nationwide deployment, the Commission is conducting a mock accreditation of voters similar to what was done ahead of the recent Ekiti and Osun State Governorship elections.”The chairman appealed to registered voters in the affected polling units to appear on the scheduled date with their PVCs for the mock exercise.

Yakubu noted that doing so would help to reassure the public of the robustness of the system and to strengthen our processes ahead of the general election.He said Civil society organisations, the media and the general public are welcome to observe the process.The chairman said at the end of the exercise, the 436 BVAS machines involved would be reconfigured before they are deployed for the general election.

Ofunaofu:

*Assures Nigerians PVCs will be delivered to all registered voters




https://www.thisdaylive.com/index.php/2023/01/28/inec-to-test-bvas-with-mock-accreditation-exercise-february-4/

Brendaniel:
After finding out the method used for the judgement on the election tribunal that gave victory to Oyetola over Adeleke, I would say it is a recipe for disaster, the method applied was cancelling all the votes of a polling unit because of over voting in that particular polling unit.


The questions I ask are:

1. As it happened that there were over voting in various polling units in the Osun election, what if each opposition connives to perpetrate over voting in polling units in each opposition strong holds?

2. What then is the use for BVAS in over voting if after the BVAS is able to identify the number of over votes only to end up cancelling all votes(valid) and over votes(invalid)?

3. If there is an election tribunal like this and a rerun takes place, what if the same over voting keeps occurring over and over, would they keep repeating the election tribunal process and back to rerun again?

In my opinion, the law is just an error or a purposeful scheme to rig an election using what I call reverse voting
Just simply tamper with your opposition strong holds and invalidate their votes, So we might be having a case where a carefully selected and protected minority will determine winners of an election instead of the majority carrying the votes.


Implications:

1. It will make elections become very dirty because politicians will be all about scheming to invalidate votes in opposition strong holds.

2. It will make the voters lose confidence in the electoral process, because a voter will not be sure if his vote will be invalidated or not by someone else scheming with a politician in his/her polling unit.

3. It will make voters wear out easily and may cause voter apathy when you have reruns after stressful elections, thereby reducing voters turn-up in reruns.

4. It may not reflect the true will of the people and also reduce the total number of voter participation, just like the Osun election tribunal, the total number of votes cast for both PDP and APC after the cancellation doesn't reflect the true will of the people to declare Oyetola the winner.

5. Elections will cost more because of Tribunal, reruns and time wasting.

6. It could lead to anarchy and total chaos, like in some volatile states in the north where they riot over political results, just imagine after election and INEC says they have cancelled over 20,000 polling units across the north which were all stronghold of a particular candidate, because of over voting of less than 2000 voters, imagine what will happen in the aftermath of such news.

Solution:

In situations of over voting, Why not just deduct the invalid votes(over votes) and count the rest, the BVAS already identifies the number of over votes(invalid votes), doing so, INEC will avoid a lot of election tribunals, scheming by politicians, reduce cost of doing reruns, make more accurate results, increase voters confidence, reduce time wasting, reflect the true will of the people and avoid anarchy.

Brendaniel:
After finding out the method used for the judgement on the election tribunal that gave victory to Oyetola over Adeleke, I would say it is a recipe for disaster, the method applied was cancelling all the votes of a polling unit because of over voting in that particular polling unit.


The questions I ask are:

1. As it happened that there were over voting in various polling units in the Osun election, what if each opposition connives to perpetrate over voting in polling units in each opposition strong holds?

2. What then is the use for BVAS in over voting if after the BVAS is able to identify the number of over votes only to end up cancelling all votes(valid) and over votes(invalid) ? That is like throwing away a baby with the bath water.

3. If there is an election tribunal like this and a rerun takes place, what if the same over voting keeps occurring over and over, would they keep repeating the election tribunal process and back to rerun again?

In my opinion, the law is just an error or a purposeful scheme to rig an election using what I call reverse voting
Just simply tamper with your opposition strong holds and invalidate their votes, So we might be having a case where a carefully selected and protected minority will determine winners of an election instead of the majority carrying the votes.


Implications:

1. It will make elections become very dirty because politicians will be all about scheming to invalidate votes in opposition strong holds.

2. It will make the voters lose confidence in the electoral process, because a voter will not be sure if his vote will be invalidated or not by someone else scheming with a politician in his/her polling unit.

3. It will make voters wear out easily and may cause voter apathy when you have reruns after stressful elections, thereby reducing voters turn-up in reruns.

4. It may not reflect the true will of the people and also reduce the total number of voter participation, just like the Osun election tribunal, the total number of votes cast for both PDP and APC after the cancellation doesn't reflect the true will of the people to declare Oyetola the winner.

5. Elections will cost more because of Tribunal, reruns and time wasting.

6. It could lead to anarchy and total chaos, like in some volatile states in the north where they riot over political results, just imagine after election and INEC says they have cancelled over 20,000 polling units across the north which were all stronghold of a particular candidate, because of over voting of less than 2000 voters, imagine what will happen in the aftermath of such news.

Solution:

In situations of over voting, Why not just deduct the invalid votes(over votes) and count the rest, the BVAS already identifies the number of over votes(invalid votes), doing so, INEC will avoid a lot of election tribunals, scheming by politicians, reduce cost of doing reruns, make more accurate results, increase voters confidence, reduce time wasting, reflect the true will of the people and avoid anarchy.