GOVERNORSHIP candidate of the All People’s Grand Alliance (APGA) Charles Chukwuma Soludo has described the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) as a total failure.
He made this statement while speaking with Arise Television on Saturday at his ward in Ifiyi Isuofia, Anambra State.
Soludo said the technical challenges encountered with the devices by the INEC officials were disrupting the elections, as voting was yet to commence in the polling unit and many other parts of the state.
“This BVAS technology of a thing, complete failure so far. If it is going to be rectified, that will still be in minutes or hours to come. By 12.30 in the day, voting is yet to start in most of the polling units in the state,” he said.
He noted that in areas where voting had begun, the process was slow.
“For the few places where they are doing it, technology that I understand ought to take seconds to accredit someone, takes twenty minutes, some thirty, some five and so on. It raises fundamental questions about technology. I’m a bit shocked to hear this, and it is all over the state.
“In places where you have 800 or 900 people, you’ll probably have five, six people who have voted so far. It just hasn’t worked up till this minute,” he said.
Soludo also identified the inadequacy of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) staff to man polling units as another factor hindering the process, saying most polling units were without officials.
“There is hardly any ward that there are INEC officials in all the polling units. There is one at Uke. There are supposed to be 17 polling units, but you have INEC officials in only 5.
Speaking on security, Soludo pointed out that was there was an absence of security operatives in some polling units within the state.
“As you can see, you can’t find a single policeman here. And that is also widespread within the state,” he said.
He, however, expressed optimism that the process would improve and encouraged voters to remain patient despite the glitches.
Ijeoma Opara is a journalist with The ICIR. Reach her via [email protected] or @ije_le on Twitter.