Bayelsa guber poll: We will deploy BVAS to prevent rigging – INEC

Bayelsa guber poll: We will deploy BVAS to prevent rigging – INEC

The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, on Thursday restated that the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) would be deployed for voter accreditation and transmission of result on Nov. 11 governorship poll in Bayelsa to prevent rigging.

This was disclosed by the Resident Electoral Commissioner, Obo Effanga, at a news conference on the commission’s readiness for the forthcoming election at the INEC office in Yenagoa.

He said that almost all the non sensitive materials were already in the local government areas where the election would be conducted.

He explained that the sensitive materials would, on arrival, be warehoused at the Cental Bank of Nigeria from where they would be distributed to 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 guidelines 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 results.

“They will be taken to the collation centre where the results are authenticated and the photograph that was taken will be uploaded onto the result viewing portal.

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“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 centre.

“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 cognisance what the Constitution says, what the Electoral Act says,” the REC said.

He explained that the guidelines for the election would be strictly followed as the commision puts finishing touches to its plan to ensure 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 talking to the voters,” he said.

According to him, eligible voters who have not collected their voter cards will do so from Sept. 11 to Oct. 9, adding that the collection of the voter cards 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 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 them.

“But where you have less than that, you have to go to the INEC office in the local government area,” he said.