INEC: Use of BVAS, Result Viewing Portal has come to stay

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) says the use of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) and Result Viewing (IReV) portal for accreditation and transmission of election results, has come to stay in Nigeria.

INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu said this at the opening of training for 82 master trainers on election technology for the 2023 general election in Abuja on Tuesday.

He said that INEC needed to build the capacity of its staff not only to competently handle the devices during the accreditation process but to also respond effectively to any glitches that may occur during the election.

“Over the last two years, the commission has increased the deployment of technology in the elections in Nigeria.

“Systems and portals have been designed and developed to cater for different electoral activities ranging from voter registration and accreditation, result transmission from the polling units, the nomination of candidates by political parties to the accreditation of polling agents, observers, and journalists for election.

“Of these innovations, most Nigerians are more familiar with the BVAS which doubles as a device for accreditation as well as the upload of the Polling Unit level result sheets to the INEC Result Viewing (IReV) portal in real-time on election day.

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“These innovations have increased transparency and public confidence in the electoral process. They are also part of the legal requirements for conducting elections in Nigeria,” he said.

Yakubu said that from the experiences in the recent off-cycle election, INEC was convinced that a critical factor in the deployment of technology in elections was training.

“Our plan for the 2023 general election is to commence the training of election officials early and for a longer period of time for optimal understanding of the processes and procedures in order to serve Nigerians better.

“A key component of this effort is election technology.

“Today, we begin the process with the training of master trainers to serve as Registration Area Technical Support (RATECH).

“A total of 82 officials drawn from our offices nationwide will form the nucleus of the training. Over the next three days, they will receive intensive hands-on training on the new technology,” he said.

Yakubu added: “Thereafter, they will train more officials at a zonal level to cover all the 8,809 Registration Areas (or Wards). In turn, these officials will be involved in the training ad hoc staff for the 176,846 Polling Units nationwide.’’