Rivers: The BVAS Hiccup
2 min read
Gift EREBAH
A youth from Eleme, Rivers State, Joseph Friday in Alode Community, has expressed disappointment over his inability to vote despite having his Permanent Voter’s Card. He said this in his polling unit during the Presidential and National Assembly elections on Saturday.
The Biomodal Voter Accreditation System, BVAS, designed to read PVCs and authenticate voters using either biometrics or facial recognition or both, and records the information once verified, and remains stored on the machine. Nigerians have been very optimistic about the BVAS machines, as they cannot be tampered with, as manufactured and configured. It was touted as the game changer.
However, it appears that some of the electorate were disenfranchised by the BVAS leaving people saddened for not being able to vote.
Mr Friday, one of the persons who suffered initial rejection from the BVAS spoke to TNN, saying “I don’t know why my face is not recognised, I don’t know. I don’t know if it’s because it’s a new PVC. INEC needs to do something about this before the governorship election, it is their fault. They need to verify it, I’m really sad by this. I need to vote for my Candidate.
“I’ve spent a long time here, yet I’ve still not been able to vote. They need to work on their system so that I can vote. As I couldn’t vote for president, I want to vote for governor.”
TNN gathered that the BVAS machine failed to recognise and accredit over 15 persons in ward 2, polling unit 7 in Alode community, even after several attempts. Some persons even got angry and left the polling unit, while some waited, cleansed their faces with water hoping that the BVAS would eventually recognise their faces.
Another voter in the unit said “how can someone with a voter’s card not vote? This is not good at all. It is not fair at all on us.”
