The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has denied media reports that accredited figures of voters in the Kogi governorship election results uploaded on the INEC Result Viewing (IReV) portal, were tampered with.
This clarification was contained in a press statement signed by Mohammed Haruna, INEC’s National Commissioner and member of the Information and Voter Education Committee. The electoral umpire stated that the media reports accusing it of tampering with accreditation data for the Kogi election results are unfounded.
“For the avoidance of doubt, the most accurate and up-to-date Voters’ Accreditation Data is available in the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), which is used for the authentication and accreditation of registered voters at various polling units on election day. It automatically retains the accreditation data of all voters”, Mohammed Haruna stated.
The INEC statement went further to state that the BVAS is designed to primarily work offline without Internet connectivity, which facilitates faster and seamless authentication and accreditation experience for voters. However, when its application is active or in use, depending on the strength of its connection to the Internet, the BVAS automatically exports the accreditation data to the Accreditation Backend System (ABS).
This exportation of data, Haruna went further to explain, does not happen when the device’s application is inactive or when the internet connectivity is poor. The same experience applies to a situation where more than one BVAS gadget is used at a polling unit with more than 1,250 registered voters.
The INEC Commissioner compared the dynamics around uploading of accreditation data from the BVAS device to a situation when poor network services delay the delivery of an SMS sent from one individual to another through a mobile phone.
“At the close of poll, Presiding Officers are expected to press the data exportation button on the BVAS to ensure that all the accreditation data are exported to the ABS. This process, referred to as synchronization and which is ongoing, could lead to changes in the accreditation figures as more data flow in to update the existing figures”, Haruna stated.
“This is the basis for the caveat provided on the IReV portal, regarding the accreditation figures. The accreditation data cannot be changed on the BVAS after the close of poll.
“The public should disregard the misleading report and misinformation”, the statement concluded.