In a response to the European Union Election Observation Mission’s final report on the 2023 general elections, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) reaffirmed that the glitch encountered during the upload of the February 25 presidential election should not overshadow the overall success of the nationwide polls.
Festus Okoye, the INEC National Commissioner, made these statements on Tuesday, June 27, 2023.
Okoye emphasised that it would be unfair to judge the commission’s performance solely based on the challenge faced during the presidential election result upload. He encouraged Nigerians to take into account the broader context and the extensive measures put in place by the electoral body.
He further highlighted that political parties had the opportunity to monitor proceedings at polling units by nominating and accrediting over 170,000 polling agents. These agents provided primary evidence of the results, making it imperative for political parties not to solely rely on the result upload as the sole basis for their legal claims.
Okoye explained that the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), which was deployed by INEC for the general elections, received commendation from Nigerians. He confirmed that no issues had been raised regarding the functionality of the BVAS in terms of voter accreditation.
The BVAS machine, an electronic device distributed across the country’s 176,000 polling units, facilitated voter accreditation during the elections. It was also designed to promptly upload photographic copies of result sheets to the INEC Results Viewing (IReV) portal following documentation at the polling units.
