Diaspora Voting: Tinubu says INEC yet to reassure Nigerians that electronic transmission of results is reliable.

The All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu, has said that Nigerians in the diaspora should be allowed to vote, but that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has yet to assure Nigerians that electronic transmission of election results is reliable.

Tinubu, 70, stated this on Monday during a speech at Chatham House in London, England.

When asked about his plans for diaspora voting, the former governor of Lagos State stated, “If you contribute to the economy with your remittances, your right to vote should not be abrogated, but promoted.”

“However, we are still working to build trust in our democratic and voting systems.” “INEC has yet to assure us during this election that electronic transmission, the technology used for accreditation, and the total votes count are reliable, dependable, and assuring in our democratic process before we introduce a complicated element of ballot,” he said.

Politicians opposed to the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) and the INEC Election Result Viewing Portal (IReV) have recently attempted to use the courts to prevent INEC from deploying BVAS in the 2023 general elections, but the electoral body has consistently reiterated its commitment and determination to deploy the system in the 2023 general elections.

BVAS is a technological system mandated by the Electoral Act of 2022 that allows for voter accreditation through biometrics capture and result uploading, among other things.

Many have described it as an improvement on the smartcard reader used in the previous general elections, which produced some results in the country’s electoral process.

The former Lagos governor was there with the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, and his Jigawa State counterpart, Abubakar Badaru, as well as former Ekiti State Governor, Kayode Fayemi.