#Techtrends: All you need to know about BVAS; Nigeria’s most cutting-edge election technology

 

The biggest election in Africa will take place in Nigeria on February 13, 2023. In Nigeria's 23 years of uninterrupted democracy, this year’s election marks the seventh successive general election. In 176,846 polling units distributed across 774 local government districts, an estimated 95 million registered voters will cast their ballots, with 10 million new voters added to the voter register. A total of 12,163 candidates sponsored by 18 political parties are on the ballot for election into 109 senatorial districts, 360 federal constituencies, 993 state constituencies, 28 governorship positions, and the office of the President.

Against this backdrop, this year’s election will be different from previous ones because new electoral legislation and innovations like the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) have been introduced by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to improve electoral integrity and boost public trust in the electoral process.

What is BVAS?

The Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) is an electronic device introduced by the Independent National Electoral Commission in 2021. The BVAS is essentially a small rectangular box with a screen that is more technologically advanced than the Smart Card Readers used in the past. This biometric technology has been designed to verify Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs), and enable human recognition through a biometric verification mechanism, using both fingerprint and facial recognition of voters.

The device can also capture images of the polling unit result sheet (Form EC8A) and upload the image of the sheet on INEC’s Election Result Viewing platform (IReV).

IReV is an online portal where results from polling units are uploaded, transmitted, and published for the public. The portal also allows members of the public to create personal accounts to gain access to polling units’ results uploaded on the platform as PDF files

Why the BVAS is crucial for this year’s election:

INEC asserts that the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) technology addresses the ten most pervasive weaknesses in Nigeria's election result management process, which include falsification of votes at polling units, falsification of the number of accredited voters, collation of false results, mutilation of results, computational errors, swapping of results sheets, forging of results sheets, snatching and destruction of results sheets, obtaining declaration and return involuntarily, making declaration and return while result collation is still in progress, and poor recordkeeping.

What if it fails?

At least three elections have employed BVAS. When it was initially used on September 10, 2021, for the byelection for Isoko South Constituency 1 in Delta State, there were reports that the system had trouble capturing the thumbs and faces of certain elderly voters.

Also, the technology was used for the governorship election in Anambra state in November 2021, there were also complaints about how well it worked because it was unable to register voters.

However, recent elections in the states of Ekiti and Osun offered the Independent National Electoral Commission the opportunity to redeem its image with regard to the use of the BVAS.

The Independent National Electoral Commission has indicated that it has trained technicians who would be on standby at polling units should the Bimodal Voter Registration System fail during the forthcoming 2023 elections. These trained technical support staff will intervene if there are any challenges with the BVAS.

Solutions

IT experts have proffered that, for the BVAS to function optimally, the device needs regular software updates and reliable broadband access.

To avoid the potential disenfranchisement of voters in the upcoming elections, INEC has been advised to conduct a thorough audit of the BVAS.

The electoral commission has also been encouraged to enhance the infrastructure behind the technology.

Also, institutions like the Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria (ATCON) have declared their readiness to provide the Independent National Electoral Commission with telecommunications infrastructure in order to increase the legitimacy and transparency of the elections in 2023.