The Centre for Democracy and Development, CDD, has urged the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to ensure it fixes the lapses recorded during the February 4, 2023 mock accreditation exercise.
The centre stated this in a statement by its director, Idayat Hassan, on Saturday where it disclosed findings by its Election Analysis Centre, EAC.
The CDD said it deployed 111 observers with 3 observers per state across the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, for the purposes of monitoring the mock accreditation.
According to CDD, EAC observation indicated dampened confidence of some voters over the misconception that the malfunction of the BVAS was responsible for the Election Petition Tribunal judgment, which nullified the victory of the INEC declared winner in the Osun state governorship election of July 2022.
“This misconception about the role of the BVAS in the nullification of earlier declared victories would have to be urgently addressed by INEC to prevent voter apathy in the actual elections, come February 25 and March 11, 2023.
“Based on field observers’ data on the exercise, CDD EAC found instances of the late arrival of INEC officials to their respective polling units. In several cases, INEC poll officials had not arrived for commencement of the process by 11:30 am, whereas they were supposed to have arrived between 8:00 and 8:30 am,” the civil society group said.
Hassan explained further that, “our observer data shows that the BVAS worked smoothly across the majority of polling units observed. At an average of between 30 seconds and two minutes, the BVAS accredited voters who showed up for the exercise.
“Although CDD EAC observer data recorded isolated instances where the BVAS experienced glitches while trying to capture the fingerprints and facial features of elderly voters, the device eventually used either the fingerprint or facial mode to get the details of the senior citizens.”
Hassan stated “Our observation of the mock accreditation exercise similarly documented a spate of low turnout of voters for the exercise.
“The low turnout was traced to low awareness. The poor awareness and subsequent low turnout made a comprehensive assessment of the BVAS impossible.”
CDD also recommend urgent steps by INEC to address logistic challenges, particularly late arrival of poll officials.
