YIAGA: Poor logistics, BVAS glitches affected smooth conduct of FCT council polls

YIAGA Africa, a civil society organisation, says poor logistics and glitches recorded with the use of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) affected the smooth conduct of the chairmanship and councillorship elections in the federal capital territory (FCT).

In a statement issued on Saturday, the group said it deployed trained and accredited observers to monitor the elections at the six area councils in the FCT.

The FCT chairmanship and councillorship elections took place on Saturday.

According to the group, the Watching The Vote (WTV) observers report showed that poor logistics, security lapses and late arrival of officials recorded in some polling areas could undermine the credibility of the election.

“While polling officials arrived early in some polling stations, Yiaga Africa observers reported late commencement of polls in several polling stations due to logistics issues. Polling officials encountered difficulty in locating assigned polling units,” the statement reads.

“The logistics hiccups were exacerbated with the late arrival of police officers at the registration area centers. For instance, several polling units in Abuja municipal area council especially Gwarinpa and Orozo ward opened late as polling officials couldn’t deploy without security protection. On average, accreditation and voting commenced at 10:00 am in most polling units observed.

“Yiaga Africa notes that some trained ad-hoc staff were substituted on election day, just before deployment to the polling units. This implies that ad-hoc officials who were not trained were deployed to administer the elections. Yiaga Africa notes the late hour substitution could likely affect the quality of election administration.

“In line with election guidelines, the BVAS was deployed to all polling units observed. In some polling units observed, INEC deployed two BVAS to polling units with high number of registered voters. However, Yiaga Africa observed that in some polling units with over 1000 registered voters, INEC deployed only one BVAS, indicating inconsistency in the guidelines for the BVAS deployment.

“Despite assurances from INEC on the improvement of the BVAS technology, Yiaga Africa observed technological glitches with the BVAS. The BVAS failed to authenticate both the fingerprints and facial biometrics of voters in most polling units visited. The failure of the BVAS caused delay in the accreditation process in some polling units.

“Yiaga Africa observers reported disenfranchisement of voters as a result of missing names on the voter register deployed to the polling unit. In the centres where the disenfranchisement occurred, the voters were holders of valid Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) assigned to those polling units. For such voters, INEC’s online voter verification portal also verified their registration status.

“Yiaga Africa observed that the imbalance in the distribution of voters to new polling units affected the effective management of polling units with over 1000 registered voters. This led to overcrowding in some polling units. The observation revealed that some polling units had as many as 2,500 registered voters while others had less than 5 voters within the same location.

“Yiaga Africa notes that these inconsistencies question the reliability and accuracy of the commission’s framework for the expansion of polling units.”