Ahead of the forthcoming general elections, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Saturday conducted a mock accreditation exercise in Twelve (12) polling units across six local government areas in Lagos.
While the presidential and National Assembly elections hold on 25 February, the governorship and State Assembly elections will be conducted on 11 March.
The Nation reports INEC, last week, noted the mock exercise was to test the efficacy of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) in preparation for the Presidential and National Assembly elections.
The Chairman of INEC, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, added that the machines used for the mock exercise would be reconfigured in preparation for the main elections
Although the technology has also been deployed in several off-season elections held recently, INEC will be deploying the BVAS machine for the first time in a general elections.
In Lagos, the selected local government areas include: Ikorodu, Somolu, Eti-Osa, Surulere, Agege and Ikeja. They were picked from the three senatorial districts in the state.
INEC officials led by the Lagos Resident Electoral Commissioner, Olusegun Agbaje, visited six polling units in Surulere, Shomolu and Ikeja respectively to observe the process.
Agbaje re-echoed that the mock accreditation process was to test the functionality of the BVAS ahead of the 2023 general election in the state.
In some of the polling units monitored by The Nation, the exercise started at 8:30 a.m and ended by 2:30 p.m.
At the polling units, security operatives including the Police, NSCDC, DSS were on ground to monitor the process.
Read Also : PHOTOS: INEC holds mock accreditation exercise in Ikeja
Also, various party agents, especially Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), All Progressives Congress (APC), and Labour Party (LP) agents were on ground to observe the process.
Of the 543 registered voters at Anifowoshe/Ikeja, ‘in front of No 50 Abeokuta’ in the Ikeja local government area, 27 voters were accredited at about 12:11 pm when The Nation visited. The INEC official said that all the accreditation were successful.
Also, at Somolu LGA, RA – Mafowoku, Polling Unit 040, Ward 5 located at Omo Alade Alafia Street, Bariga, an INEC official said that “no failed accreditation” was recorded, and that the process was smooth due to the co-operation of the voters.
Meanwhile, voters in their different reactions while speaking on the mock exercise, commended the use of BVAS, and urged INEC to conduct free, fair and credible polls.