No PVC, no voting – INEC
Politics
By Anthony Isibor
THE Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC has reiterated its policy of “No PVC, No Voting” even as it urged all registered voters to endeavour that they collect their PVCs to vote in the 2023 general election and other elections.
Festus Okoye, National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee, of the commission made the statement at a Media/CSO Interface on Identifying and Mitigating Flashpoints of Electoral Misinformation and Disinformation organised by the International Press Centre on Saturday, December 10, 2022, in Abuja.
He said that the clarification became necessary because the application and implementation of the Regulations and Guidelines by officers of the Commission has been a source of misinformation and disinformation. Sometimes, there is deliberate injection of confusion in our processes when some persons started circulating information that registered voters do not need their PVCs to vote in any election.
According to him, the 2023 general election will be based on the Electoral Act 2022 which introduced new and creative innovation on the electoral ecosystem which comes with Some progressive innovations including Early notice of election, Timely release of funds for election, increased timelines for nomination of candidates, The use of the SCR or any other technological device for the accreditation of voters, electronic collation and transmission of election result, Determination of over-voting by number of accredited voters, and the power of the Commission to review declaration and return made by Returning Officers, exclusive jurisdiction of the Federal High Court in pre-election litigation, The right of political parties to inspect their logo before election, The provision of assistive devices for persons with disability among others.
Okoye also noted that the replacement of Smart Card Readers with the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, BVAS was in furtherance of efforts to ensure free, fair, and credible elections.
“The reality is that the Commission must conduct the 2023 general election based on the Electoral Act, 2022. Attacking the Commission based on its resolve to conduct a law-based election will not change its resolve to organise, undertake and supervise elections in Nigeria.
“The Commission continues to explore the use of technology in our elections. One of such innovation in preparation for the 2023 general election is the replacement of the SCR with the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) to improve and strengthen the voter verification, authentication and accreditation process. The use of the BVAS for voter accreditation and authentication is irreversible and backed by law.
“A key provision in the Electoral Act 2022 is Section 50(2) empowers the Commission to transmit election results in accordance with a procedure determined by it.
“Prior to the enactment of the new Act and convinced that the introduction of technology in the result management process is better than the best manual procedure, the Commission has continually explored ways of improving the integrity of the collation and results transmission process in our elections. Consequently, it developed and deployed on a pilot basis, an electronic result collation and transmission platform. With the new Act, the Commission has commenced the deployment of the system in all elections including the recent Ekiti and Osun Governorship elections. The Commission shall deploy the INEC Result Viewing Portal in the 2023 general election, and it will be used to upload polling unit level result in real time
“These improvements in the electoral legal framework have changed the dynamics of voter accreditation and authentication as well as the collation of results. This has also impacted on our administrative, operational and logistics planning towards the 2023 general election and other elections and reinforced the confidence of Nigerians in the electoral process,” he said.
The INEC Commissioner also refuted some of the Misinformation and misinterpretation of The commissions policies which he said are only aimed at confusing the Nigerian people or delegitimizing the Commission and the electoral process.
He said that a regime of misinformation and disinformation has been afoot in relation to the deployment of technology in the electoral process especially the introduction of the BVAS for voter accreditation and authentication.
“Issues have been raised and is still being raised on its functionality, efficacy of its use and the capacity of the Commission to deploy the technology. Those with double and multiple Permanent Voters Cards are now unable to use them. Those that are masters in the use of Incident Forms have been taken out of business and they want a return to the old ways of conducting elections. Some of them are claiming that the BVAS uses network and there is no network in their localities.
“The reality is that BVAS works offline and does not require network for voter verification and authentication. The BVAS has come to stay and shall be used and deployed for the conduct of the 2023 general election. Section 47(2) of the Electoral Act makes the use of the BVAS for voter authentication and verification mandatory and the Commission is not vested with the discretionary authority to use or not to use the device.
“The capacity of the Commission to electronically transmit pooling unit level result in real time has been met with stiff resistance in some quarters. The management of result collation has been a source of concern and consternation to the Commission. The electronic transmission and transfer of results has been a game changer in the electoral process. This has reduced incidents of hijack and hacking of results on their way to the collation centre. Sections 50 and 64 of the Electoral Act make the electronic transmission of polling unit level results mandatory. The Commission will continue to improve on its processes but will not been drawn into a debate on settled issues.
“At the end of the CVR exercise the completed registrations stood at 12, 298, 944. The valid registrations stood at 9, 518, 188 while invalid registrations stood at 2, 780, 756. The Commission decided to integrate the existing voters register that had over 84million registered voters with the CVR figure and displayed the provisional register containing 93, 522, 272. However, the impression has been given that the Commission disenfranchised the multiple and double registrants. Those engaged in ethnic and religious narratives went ahead to cluster the double and multiple registrants into regions and zones to arrive at a predetermined conclusion. The Commission used its Automated Biometric identification System to weed out the double and multipole registrants and used manual adjudication to remove some malicious registrations. It will continue to clean up the register to remove visibly under aged registrants.
“The Commission has made it clear that open votes buying will not be tolerated on Election Day. Our democracy should not be for sale in the open market and votes are not commodities to be bargained, bought, and sold. It is the fundamental right of every voter to vote in secret for the candidate of his or her choice without let or hindrance. As we approach the 2023 general election, INEC will continue to implement policies and collaborate with the law enforcement and financial regulatory agencies to check vote buying. However, the Commission is not vested with the power to go from house to house in search of vote buyers and sellers,” he said.
He also called on all critical stakeholders to rise and fight the spectre of misinformation and disinformation by verifying information before sharing.
KN
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