Ironically, the Anambra State governorship election of November 6 was marred by problems linked to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). The electoral agency that was supposed to provide answers provoked questions.
Before Election Day, there were fears that secessionists might disrupt the poll. But the disruption came unexpectedly from INEC, which extended voting by 24 hours following the failure of its Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) and logistics challenges.
The Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Dr Nkwachukwu Orji, said “the extension of time arose out of several field reports that voters have had problems with accreditation.” He added that “the accreditation devices, Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), have worked perfectly in some polling units, but not in others.”
He also explained that “on account of security concerns, some of the transporters that were mobilised and collected 50 per cent of their sign-on fee backed out at the last moment, leaving some of our ad hoc staff stranded. Also, some of the trained ad hoc staff backed out at the last moment.”
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But explanations are not enough. INEC was supposed to be ready to conduct the election and also ready to tackle agency-related problems that might arise in the course of the election without significant disruption. Extending the election by 24 hours, which made voting to continue the next day, left much to be desired.
Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, governorship candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), said he was shocked by INEC’s technology breakdown. “This BVAS technology is a complete failure… It raises fundamental questions,” he lamented.
Predictably, the failures exposed INEC to public criticism that was avoidable. Soludo, for instance, advised the agency to “train and retrain the people that operate these machines because you do not need to have this kind of problem.”
His description of the problem and how it disrupts polling is alarming. He said of the accreditation machine and the agency’s approach to its operation: “If it stops working, before you call for technical assistance, it can take about an hour. When the guy comes, fiddles with it, it might accredit another five voters and it goes bad again then you have to wait for another hour for somebody else to come.”
INEC needs to review its BVAS in particular to correct the operational problems that led to the extension of voting. It is inexcusable that the agency’s accreditation machines failed and caused disruption.