Plateau REC Explains Importance Of BVAS In Election

The Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in Plateau State, Oliver Tersoo Agundu, has explained that the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) is not used to input figures during elections but to determine the number of registered voters.

He said BVAS is majorly used for the accreditation of voters and then used to snap the result sheets after the results have been collated and endorsed by the party agents at the polling unit.

Agundu, who stated this during an interview with the Voice of Nigeria on Friday, added that the BVAS is also used as a backup device for the raw result sheets.

He explained, “The Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, is purely for accreditation. The only thing that BVAS has to do with the election is to determine how many people registered. Then at the end of the election, BVAS is expected to be used to snap. It is not even used to input figures.

“It is after the results have been collected, endorsed by the presiding officer and the agents of political parties, the first sheet, that is the original sheet will be snapped. That is what we call Form EC8A will be snapped and uploaded. So whether they tamper with it, you’ll see the raw figure and that is just for backup.”

On how prepared the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is to conduct the governorship and state house of assembly elections in the state today, Mr. Agundu said the electoral umpire in the state has configured, prepared, and delivered to the local governments BVAS devices.

He added that broken and malfunctioning machines were replaced and that INEC provided refresher training for ad hoc staff to avoid a repeat of some machine mastering lapses during the February 25 presidential election.