We learnt a lot from what happened at Osun election - INEC

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has said that the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) did not fail during the last Osun State governorship election.

The INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, said this in an interview with reporters while monitoring the BVAS mock accreditation exercise in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) on Saturday.

The Osun State Governorship Election Tribunal had sacked Governor Ademola Adeleke for over-voting at over 700 polling units in the 16 July 2022 governorship election in the state.

Speaking on the matter for the first time, Yakubu who clarified that the BVAS machine was not on trial as being insinuated in some quarters, however said the commission had learnt some lessons from the judgement.

According to him, though it is improper to comment on the matter as it is still in court, the commission would use the lessons learnt from the Osun judgement to improve the process for the general elections.

“The BVAS never failed anywhere and as you have seen here, the machine actually never failed. I wouldn’t like to comment on a matter in court as it is subjudice but in every situation, the commission learns and carries the experience from what has happened to improving the processes for the next election. We have learnt some lessons from what happened and one of the lessons is to be able to transmit the accreditation data.

“During this mock exercise, we have assembled result sheets that will transmit the accreditation data but there is no results sheets here because people have not voted. So on the INEC Result Viewing (IReV) Portal, we have created a new URL for those of you that are on the IReV portal. And if you go home after 2.30pm, you will see the result of the mock transmitted from the 437 polling units (PUs) nationwide, including the details of accreditation and we are going to transmit both the results on election day and the accreditation figures so that the two will rhyme,” Yakubu said.

He said the commission has given Nigerians assurance that on election day, both the accredited data and the actual votes cast will be transmitted simultaneously and accurately.

On the mock accreditation, Yakubu described the process as seamless, saying the commission decided to conduct the exercise to further test the integrity of the machines that would be deployed on election day.

The polling units visited by the INEC chairman were PU018, Post office, Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC), Area 10, and PU03, Near Chief Palace, Bwari Council Area.

The INEC boss also said that there have not been report of failure of the machine from any location where the exercise was conducted.