What We’ll Do If BVAS snatched On Election Day – INEC

Similarly, INEC Director of Voter Education and Publicity, Victor Aluko said the window for the collection of Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs) have closed till after the 2023 general elections.

He said INEC won’t take uncollected PVCs to polling units on election day because that will be a distraction for the polling unit officers

“Whoever genuinely registered and was not able to collect it (PVC), it pains us, but we are assuring them that if they miss this particular election, there are other elections, they will still be able to collect them and vote in the future,” he said.

The BVAS and INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV) are stipulated in the Electoral Act 2022 and it is a technological system that allows the accreditation of voters through biometrics capturing, uploading of results amongst others. It has been described by many as an upgrade of the smart card reader used in the last general elections, which achieved some results in the country’s electoral process.

Though many politicians have expressed hesitation on the use of the BVAS for this year’s elections and headed to court to stop its deployment, INEC has consistently maintained that the device will be used.

The electoral body also said it has enough BVAS devices to conduct elections in the 176,846 polling units nationwide, adding that politicians buying PVCs to manipulate the 2023 general elections are engaging in futile efforts because the BVAS will reject biometric data of persons who are not the original owners of the traded PVCs.

INEC also said uncollected PVCs won’t be taken to polling units on election day because that will be a distraction for the polling unit officers.