Osun Election: Mock accreditation exercise saves voters from disenfranchisement — INEC chair
By Shina Abubakar, Osogbo
The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Joash Amupitan, has said the commission’s mock accreditation exercise ahead of the August 15 Osun State governorship election helped identify and resolve a potential issue with the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), thereby preventing possible voter disenfranchisement.
Prof. Amupitan, who on Saturday monitored the exercise in 12 polling units across the state’s three senatorial districts, said the exercise served as an important quality assurance measure to test the commission’s technology under real election conditions.
Addressing journalists at the INEC office in Osogbo after the exercise, he disclosed that the major issue detected was the inability of some BVAS devices to recognise the facial images on older Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs), particularly those issued in 2011.
According to him, the commission’s Information and Communication Technology (ICT) team promptly addressed the problem by adjusting the BVAS similarity score to improve facial recognition for affected PVCs.
He said: “What could have become a major issue on election day was detected during the mock accreditation exercise. The problem had to do with some old PVCs whose facial images had become faded over time. Most of them were issued in 2011, and the BVAS initially could not recognise those images.
“It was reported from several polling units, and our technical team, led by the ICT Director, adjusted what we call the similarity score. Once that was done, the BVAS immediately began recognising the old PVCs. The issue has been resolved completely and will not recur.
“The mock accreditation exercise is our quality assurance protocol. It is designed to stress-test our technological infrastructure under real-world field conditions before the actual election, and it was successful.”
Amupitan further disclosed that, apart from the resolved issue, the accreditation process took between 30 seconds and two minutes to verify each voter using either fingerprint or facial recognition.
He said observations from the field also prompted the commission to increase the number of BVAS devices for the election to adequately cater for split polling units.
“To ensure that any sudden field failure is instantly neutralised, we have provided an upgraded pool of backup BVAS devices assigned to dedicated technical support engineers across every Registration Area (Ward),” he said.
He added that following concerns raised by some political parties over the number of BVAS machines allocated to the state, the commission increased the number of devices from 4,427 to 5,130.
According to him, the additional machines will serve split polling units in areas such as Ife East, Irewole, Egbedore, Ede North and Osogbo.
“In the process, we also increased the number of backup BVAS devices from 664 to 1,328 for quick intervention in the event of any malfunction.
“What we saw today confirms that our technological defence against identity theft and result manipulation is robust and fully operational. With the successful mock exercise providing proof of concept, the broader administrative blueprint for the August 15 election is ready,” he said.
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