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By Amos Odhe, Yenagoa
Ahead of the Bayelsa State governorship election on November 11, 2023, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has insisted that the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) would once again be deployed for voter accreditation and transmission of result.
This was disclosed by the state’s Resident Electoral Commissioner, Obo Effanga, during a press briefing on the commission’s preparation for the forthcoming election, held at the Prof. Mahmood Yakubu Media Centre, INEC in Yenagoa.
He said that almost all the non-sensitive materials are already in local government areas where election is going to be conducted, adding that the sensitive materials that will come, will be moved to their various locations.
Effanga said, “Nothing has changed with the process of election in Nigeria. We are still going to conduct election based on the provisions of the constitution, electoral act and guildlines of INEC.
“After voting at the polling units, the votes will be counted there, they will be recorded in the physical result sheet, we will use the BVAS to take a snapshot of the result, they will be taken to the collation centre where the results are authenticated and the photograph that was taken will be uploaded onto the IREV.
“Then from there we move from the wards collation to the local government collation. From the local government collation, we come to the state collation and that is when the final collation is done and the result is announced and a winner is declared.
“I assure you on behalf of my team, we will do all our best to conduct a very good election taking into cognizance what the constitution says, what the electoral act says and what the guildlines for the election will be. We are getting set for the election and we will do all that we can to ensure that this is a success.
“Every vote will count, we will ensure that every personnel sent to the field are adequately qualified and knowledgeable about the processes of election. We will not interfere in any way to aid or assist anyone. Anybody that wants to win the election should be taking to the voters,” he said.
According to the Resident Commissioner, eligible voters who have not collected their voters card will have an opportunity to do that from September 11 to October 9, adding that the collection of the voter’s card will be at the local government offices of INEC.
“In registration areas also known as wards where we have more than 500 voters cards that have not been collected, those cards will be available at those registration areas centres for the voters to collect their cards.
“Every registration area that has more than 500 cards that have not been collected, the owners of those cards can go to the registration area centres and collect their cards but where you have less than that, you have to go to the INEC office in the local government area,” he said.