Who Is Afraid Of BVAS?

Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) is among the latest modern technological devices introduced by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in the bid to enhance the integrity of the nation’s electoral system. In this report, KUNLE ODEREMI looks at the schism being expressed in certain quarters over BVAS deployment for the conduct 2023 general election.

IT is about 72 days to the general election. Come February 25, 2023, when the presidential and National Assembly elections hold, Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), the latest form of modern technology designed to enhance the integrity, credibility and openness of the nation’s electoral process, will undergo its first acid test in a national poll. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had deployed the system during the conduct of governorship elections in Anambra, Osun and Ekiti states, which enabled the commission to identify possible grey areas and rectify them in preparations for the 2023 elections.

But with less than three months to the crucial poll, there is a fresh round of debate over the deployment of BVAS for the conduct of the elections, with the controversy taking an upward swing in the last few weeks. The apparent fears expressed by the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Bola Tinubu on the probable functionality of the technology further escalated the eddies created by the views of the national chairman of the ruling party, Senator Abdullahi Adamu on the subject-matter.At the much-published presentation at Chatham House last Monday in United Kingdom, Tinubu had said: “We are still building confidence in our democratic and voting system. INEC is yet to assure us that electronic transmission, the technology being used for accreditation and the total vote count is reliable, dependable and assuring before we introduce a complicated element of ballot counting.”

Some critics took to various media platforms to vent their anger, almost in the manner political parties, individuals and groups rebuked Adamu on the same issue. Though, the INEC fell short of mentioning any political gladiator, the commission denounced opposition to BVAS saying it had come to stay. Whereas APC later claimed its national chairman, Adamu was misquoted on the deployment of the modern technology for the 2023 elections, the storm created by the said view has not settled. His controversial statement made when he received a pre-election delegation of the Commonwealth Election Observation Mission in Abuja was that, “First, I was privileged to serve as a senator. But our concern is how ready are we to deploy some of these technologies as regards transmission because we are taking a major step in transmitting election results in real time. To transmit results, every part of the nation – Nigeria, I’m not sure that the network covers it; I know that even in parts of Abuja, there is no network and we have from now till February when in substantial parts of the country, there is no electricity. INEC must assure us 100 per cent that as of when due in transmitting results, they are ready because they spoke about recharging batteries. But we heard in previous elections when it says it can’t recharge.”

But barely 24 hours after those controversial statements, the national publicity secretary of the ruling party, Felix Morka, announced that the national chairman was misquoted. Morka stated that much as Adamu had tasked INEC on its readiness to deploy the technology, the party remained committed to the highest level of electoral transparency. “Media reports that chairman Adamu kicked against INEC’s decision to deploy BVAS and electronic transmission of results is patently false, and constitutes an unfair misrepresentation of the National Chairman’s comments. At a meeting with the Commonwealth pre-election delegation yesterday, Wednesday, November 23, 2022, in response to a question regarding the country’s preparations for next year’s election, the National Chairman noted that, while preparations were in top gear, he tasked INEC to take effective steps to bridge any gaps that may be created by electricity and telecommunications network challenges in certain outlying voting districts in the country in order to ensure a smooth and successful deployment of BVAS and other technologies to ensure free and transparent election, ”he said.

Adamu’s perceived fear was re-echoed by the party’s national organising secretary, Suleiman Argungu, especially on the issue of power supply as it relates to the technology. “Apart from the issue of electricity that is unstable, a lot of the villages and communities are bordering other countries, for instance, my state, Kebbi was bordering two nations during the previous elections. You can’t get people easily on the network of Nigeria, Glo, MTN, Airtel. If you want to get them, you have to use the number of the other countries to reach them. So, during election, I don’t see how transmission of result will work,” he said. The clarification by APC came against the backlash of public, with the main opposition party, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), accusing APC of plotting to reenact the inglorious era of election rigging. Its Director of Strategic Communication, PDP presidential campaign council, Dele Momodu, warned: “The world has gone digital and anything that will eliminate political thuggery, cheating and rigging; I will expect any reasonable political party to support it. It’s like sending us back 50 years into antiquity. At PDP, we will support transparent elections only.” In the same vein, spokesperson of Atiku/Okowa Presidential Campaign, Kola Ologbondiyan, claimed that the seeming rejection of BVAS by APC and its candidate was an indication that they lacked the support of Nigerians. On its part, the Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP) alleged that the utterances of APC chieftains on BVAS were because the ruling party planned to compromise the election. In a statement, the CUPP stated: “Technology keeps making it increasingly possible to reduce the contentious menace of electoral fraud and other forms of manipulation that has characterised our electoral system in times past. With the emergence of BVAS, which is replacing the Smart Card Readers used in previous elections, polls in Nigeria will now be better in credibility.” For the Ohanaeze Ndigbo Youth Council Worldwide (OYC) national president, Mazi Okwu Nnabuike, “In other countries, a ruling party is expected to be in the vanguard of advancing democracy, but that is no longer the case with APC.”

Harvest of electoral fraud

The advocacy for deployment of more modern technology is based on the necessity to rid of fraud in the Nigeria electoral system and bring it to the level of global standard practice. This is because statistics on electoral malpractices during general election since 1999 appears awful and detestable. In the elections that ended a prolonged military interregnum 24 years ago, there were cases of gross subversion of the electoral process by desperate politicians colluding with agents of other bodies involved in the monitoring process and supervision of security. A similar trend subsisted in the 2003 general election, as cases relating to electoral offences are still pending before courts of competent jurisdiction. In short, the 2003 elections was characterised by large-scale irregularities and violence, with both domestic and international election observers in their various reports acknowledging that there were massive electoral malpractices perpetrated by major political actors. In some instances, other electoral misconducts were allegedly perpetrated by INEC and its unscrupulous officials, in the form of unlawful possession of ballot papers and boxes, unlawful possession of authorised/unauthorised voter cards, stuffing of ballot boxes, forgery of results, falsification of result sheets, tampering with ballot boxes, collusion with party agents to share unused ballot papers for fat financial rewards and inconsistent application of INEC’s procedures. The general election of 2007 drew more flak because of the incredulous scale of subversion of the will of the people at the poll. It necessitated the setting up of the Mohammed Uwais Electoral Reform Committee, which among others, recommendation the setting up of an electoral offences Commission to handle all breaches of the extant laws emanating from the conduct of elections.

For the 2011 polls, INEC introduced more modern technologies, among them, biometric PVC and card reader machine to verify the authenticity of the PVC and carry out a verification of the intending voter by matching the biometrics obtained from the voter on the spot with those stored on the PVC. So, the 2011 voter register, which is Nigeria’s first electronically compiled register, produced PVCs used in the 2015 general elections. Various reports noted that, unlike the 1999, 2003, 2007 and 2011 elections, the 2015 elections witnessed a general reduction in election litigation. According to the reports, total number of petitions filed after the 2003 elections was 560. By 2007, the petitions increased to 1,290, with a total of 731 elections petitions filed at the various election petition tribunals after the 2011 elections. The figure dropped to 731 following the electoral reforms due to the Yar’Adua/Jonathan administration. In a research article titled: Elixir of electoral fraud: The impact of digital technology on the 2015 general elections in Nigeria, the authors noted that while the deployment of biometric technologies may not entirely make the elections free and fair, they, however, accounted for their credibility. Despite challenges, especially in fingerprint verification, the card readers contributed in curbing pervasive electoral fraud, the researchers: Chikodiri Nwangwu, Vincent Chidi Onah, Otu Akanu Otu, stated.

Basis for BVAS

The 2023 general election is the seventh successive general election in 23 years of unbroken civilian dispensation. There is an additional 10 million new voters to the 84 making up an estimated 95 million to vote in 176,846 polling units in 774 local government areas, with 18 political parties fielding a total of 12,163 candidates in 109 senatorial districts, 360 federal constituencies; 993 state constituencies, 28 governorship positions, and the office of the President. Two modern technologies to be deployed for the elections are BVAS and INEC Election Result Viewing Portal (IReV) to tackle 10 most pervasive weaknesses in election result management process. These malfeasance include falsification of votes at polling units, falsification of number of accredited voters, collation of false results, mutilation of results and computational errors, swapping of results sheets, forging of results sheets, snatching and destruction of results sheets, obtaining declaration and return involuntarily, making declaration and return while result collation is still in progress and poor recordkeeping.

INEC has at different fora, displayed and showed how BVAS operates. BVAS was first deployed in the Isoko South Constituency 1 bye-election in Delta State on September 10, 2021 before it was used to conduct the governorship poll in Anambra State in 2021. Thereafter, it was deployed similar elections in Ekiti and Osun states. Based on the success of the technology, INEC says more than 2,000 BVAS will be deployed across 176,000 polling units in the country for the 2023 elections. INEC National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee, Festus Okoye, was even recently quoted as assuring Nigerians that the machine would be in all the polling units to help check fraud and to guarantee free and fair polls. “We will have one BVAS reserve in every Registration Area Centre (RAC) to ensure immediate intervention in case of any failure,” Okoye said. He explained that technical officers would be on standby at every RAC to attend to any technical issues that could arise in the course of the polls.

In spite of the optimism of INEC on the technology as a game changer, some stakeholders have raised questions about the use of BVAS, especially in rural communities. The matter was taken to court by a few individuals. But INEC has promised synergy with other critical agencies on the issues with the purpose of plugging all likely loopholes towards dousing doubts being expressed in certain quarters. A former INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) Akwa Ibom State, Mike Igini said that those who have gone to court over BVAS wanted to return the country to the ugly past. Igini explained that democracy would not be complete without the rule of law; adding that the best way to fight the ills of democracy was through more democracy. So, he wants the electorate to be extra vigilant during the 2023 general election and ensure compliance with the electoral law. A development practitioner, Samson Itodo also has a word of caution for the people. He says since in elections, perception is everything, “introducing the BVAS and IReV into the framework for election results management has transformed the public perception of the accuracy and credibility of election results. He described the action as “one of the most significant innovations and reforms to Nigeria’s electoral process.