November 11: INEC To Deploy 11,355 BVAS Machines To Kogi, Bayelsa, Imo States

No fewer than 11,355 Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machines will be deployed for voter accreditation in the November 11 governorship elections in Kogi, Bayelsa, and Imo states.

Naija News gathered that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) said Bayelsa State has 2,244 polling units, Kogi has 3,508 polling units, and Imo has 4,758 polling units.

Speaking to The Punch anonymously, a top official in the commission who revealed the development said the electoral umpire would do better in the forthcoming polls.

Even though the presidential and National Assembly elections held on February 25, 2023, had challenges of  BVAS malfunction, the commission, during reviews of the 2023 polls,  maintained that the deployed BVAS recorded a 98% success rate.

However, the INEC official said,“2,400 BVAS would be deployed to Bayelsa State while 5,079 and 3,876 BVAS would be used in Imo and Kogi, respectively.

“The BVAS never malfunctioned. However, we hoped to do more than what we did on March 18, 2023.”

Meanwhile, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has said it will approach the National Assembly to amend the 2022 Electoral Act to allow its officials on duty and others who work on election days to be able to vote

The INEC Chairman, Prof Mahmoud Yakubu disclosed this on Wednesday during a post-election review meeting with media stakeholders in Lagos.

He said journalists and security agents, such as policemen, soldiers and others should be able to cast their ballots during elections, despite being on official duty.