By Tunde Omisola, Senior Correspondent
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Ahead of the 2023 General Elections, Nigeria’s electoral umpire, the Independent National Electoral Commission(INEC) will be deploying Bimordal Verification Accreditation System (BVAS) and not Smart Card Readers to instill greater efficiency into the electoral system, Cyber Era NG has learnt.
INEC Electoral Officer for Lagos Island, Lagos, south west, Nigeria, Chinwe Onyeokoro disclosed this at a stakeholders meeting to sensitise Lagosians on the imperative to be registered to participate in the forthcoming general elections.
The Lagos State House of Assembly (LSHA) recently held the exercise simultaneously in all LGAs and LCDAs in the State, partly for registration sake and also to update existing and potential voters on modalities put in place by government to assist them. This is the 8th Constituency Stakeholders Meeting and the last to be hosted by the 9th Assembly.
Lagos Island East LCDA held her version in the form of a town hall meeting at Christ Church Cathedral Primary School, Broad Street, Lagos, which was attended by all political leaders in the Council area, market women representatives, youths, religious leaders and other residents.
According to Mrs. Onyeokoro, the BVAS, unlike the Smart Card Reader, recognizes either the thumb print or face expression of the card holder during accreditation and voting saying it is therefore pertinent for old PVC (issued in 2010/2011, 2014/2015, 2018/2019) card holders to do revalidation as it is likely there could be changes in their faces, which means they should upload their current images on the INEC Registration Portal, revalidate and update so that they can vote.
Mass participation is the essence of a good, inclusive and credible election and to achieve this, Nigerians are being mobilised and encouraged to register and obtain a Permanent Voter’s Card (PVC) which will enable them to exercise their franchise in next year’s General Elections. Unlike in previous exercises, INEC says it is doing all within its powers to ensure a hitch-free poll.
The Commission has extended the ongoing Continuous Voter’s Registration (CVR) by one month. The exercise which commenced June 28, 2021 online through its platform: https://CVR.inecnigeria.org or https://CVR.inec.gov.ng. followed by a physical capturing at its offices, was scheduled to have ended on June 30, 2022 but would now end on July 31, 2022.
Lagos State has a record of voter apathy going by performance at previous elections in the State. For example, only 1,156,590 registered voters (17.6%) out of a total 6,570,291 participated in the 2019 General Elections.
It is to curb this trend that the LSHA emplaced the yearly stakeholders sensitization meeting.
In his welcome address, the executive Chairman of Lagos Island East Local Council Development Area, Hon.Waidi Folawiyo highlighted the importance of the gathering, pointing out the need for all citizens to register and obtain their PVCs and disclosing that 119 additional polling booths have been created by INEC on the Lagos Island area.
The member of LSHA representing Lagos Island II, Hon. Afinni Olanrewaju Suleiman also encouraged residents to go out and register, collect their PVCs and vote thereby helping to stop the voter apathy which is common among Lagosians.
Currently, Lagos State has a total of 1,091,157 PVCs yet to be collected according to INEC.
