2023 elections: INEC to deploy 176,846 BVAS machines

The Independent National Electoral Commission has disclosed that it will deploy a total of 176, 846 of Bimodal Voter Accreditation System for the February 2023 general elections.

The INEC National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee, Festus Okoye, revealed this at he Hubert Humphrey Fellowship Alumni Association Annual Seminar 2022 in Abuja on Monday.

He further said that the commission would provide 17,618 BVAS machines for back-up, with two devices per registration area.

Okoye also said that INEC’s data recovery centres would be upgraded and all its platforms enhanced before the elections in order to forestall the constant attacks the platform had received from hackers and political actors, adding that the commission was determined to conduct free and fair elections in 2023.

He said, “The commission is firm and fixed on its resolve to conduct free, fair, transparent and inclusive elections.

“The commission will continue to be open and transparent in its technological innovations because election business is public business and the public has a right to know what the commission is doing.

“INEC will continue to gradually infuse technology in the electoral process to enhance transparency and verifiability in voter authentication and result management. The level of technological development in the country and the state of infrastructure will invariably impact on the technology the commission can deploy.

“In this regard, the commission will continue to make haste slowly as accuracy in result management is more important than the speed at which technology is introduced.

“We are confident that the BVAS and IReV will form an important pillar and component in the march towards an electoral process driven by technology to obviate malicious human interference in the electoral process,” he added.