Glitches in BVAS Machines Cause Chaos and Delays in Nigeria’s Presidential Election

Reports of glitches in the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machines used in the 2023 presidential election have impaired the election’s functionality and caused delays in voting.

During the election, citizens offered power banks to INEC officials to charge the BVAS machine when it had a low battery, and some voters shared internet data with the machine after complaining of no data.

The BVAS technology also faced technical challenges in transmitting results in some parts of the country, causing concern among Nigerians.

These BVAS challenges recorded at the polls stirred up reactions, with some citizens stating that INEC Chairman, Prof. Yakubu Mahmoud, has damaged the credibility of the electoral system.

They noted that the failure of the BVAS to upload results in most polling units signifies inefficiency and sabotage.

Human rights lawyer Inibehe Effiong reacting to this, took to his Twitter handle where he wrote, “In my polling unit, I did everything to get the INEC officials to upload the results but to no avail. The presiding officer tried repeatedly and failed. But the same BVAS accredited nearly everyone successfully, but suddenly failed to upload results. This couldn’t be technical glitches. Someone likely programmed the system to fail. Prof. Yakubu Mahmoud has destroyed the electoral system”.

Check out some other reactions from Nigerians;

A user @Nero365 wrote, “It’s always been a planned conspiracy to make sure the BVAS doesn’t upload results at polling unit level, this is to ensure that the result sheets are edited at the collating centers. INEC has always been our greatest undoing. Sham of an election. It should be canceled”.

Another user @el_mya wrote, “This was intentional from INEC, BVAS was not used across the country to transmit results from any polling units. We were scammed with the electronic transmission of results. It is the same old manual imputation at rec centers where voters have no access to defend their votes.

Despite INEC’s assurance of the top-notch functionality of the BVAS machines and its ability to seamlessly accredit voters and transmit results electronically on the day of the election, glitches were recorded across the country during its use.

Investors King has learned that INEC conducted a nationwide mock accreditation of voters using the BVAS machine and reported optimal performance. However, the just-concluded 2023 presidential election revealed numerous challenges with the device.

The Bimodal Voters Accreditation System (BVAS) replaced the smart card reader used in 2015 and offers dual capacity for fingerprint and facial authentication. INEC announced its intent to use the technology in April 2022.

Despite multiple opportunities to shine, the BVAS has failed to deliver. In the 2021 Anambra state elections, the technology faced diverse challenges during its wide-scale use.