The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has reiterated its position on the use of technology in Nigeria’s electoral process.
The Commission said technological innovations pioneered by it would drive the July 16 Governorship Election in Osun state.
INEC made the assertion on Monday, at a Stakeholders’ Meeting held at the Media Centre of its Osun state office along Gbongan road, Osogbo.
The declaration comes on the heels of the recently signed electoral amendment bill, which gave legal backing to the use of technology for elections in Nigeria.
The Osun Resident Electoral Commissioner, Professor AdulGaniy Raji, in his welcome address, reiterated the Commission’s commitment to conducting credible polls in the state, using technology.
He said: “We are determined to conduct our best election ever so as to raise the bar of the best performance of INEC in the recent time to an enviable and commendable standard that will stand the test of time and be free of any appearance of violence”.
Technological Innovations
The REC explained that in order for the Commission to achieve maximum success in the forthcoming election, it reviewed its long and recently conducted elections to determine areas that needed adjustments and improvements.
“Let me make the bold statement that the Commission has improved on the deployment of personnel for elections, addressed some of the challenges noticed regarding the functionality of new technological innovations (BVAS) introduced by the Commission as a way of making our elections more transparent, that the machines are now working perfectly as they are capable of collating, transmitting and declaring results of elections more accurately and speedily, resulting to better outcomes of our elections as evident in FCT Area Council Election which I participated in.
“The experience and knowledge gathered in the election would be deployed and factored into the conduct of Osun Election for better result”.
Raji insisted that technology would help the electoral body actualise its vision of presiding over a world class, free, fair, credible and all-inclusive election, using the new Biomodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS).
Expatiating on the BVAS technology, Osun INEC Deputy Director for ICT, Dr Lawrence Bayode, said the technology is being currently used for the Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) and would be deployed for voter accreditation and upload of polling unit level results to INEC Result Viewing (IReV) portal on Election Day.
He explained further that BVAS is a muti-functional integrated device that would make available electronic copies of the PU Result Sheet (EC8A) for general public view, apart from being used for voter registration and accreditation.
Bayode added that the BVAS technology had been successfully used since the August 8 Bye Election in Nasarawa state and would prove critical to the success of the July 16 Governorship Election in Osun state.
Dominica Nwabufo
