The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has stated that accreditation of voters for the 2023 general election will be through electronic means only, meaning the manual voters accreditation adopted in previous elections will no longer be used.
The regulation is contained in the newly published Regulations and Guidelines for 2023 general election as presented by INEC Chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu. In clause 20 of the guidelines stated that;
Where a voter cannot be identified by the BVAS for the Polling Unit using the methods outlined in Clause 19 (d) of these Regulations and Guidelines or where the voter’s fingerprint or face cannot be matched with the details in the BVAS
after three trials, the voter shall not be allowed to vote. In that case, the APO I shall:
(i) Advise the voter to use appropriate channels to notify the Commission of his/her failure to accredit;
(ii) Politely request the voter to leave the Polling Unit; and
(iii) Tick the appropriate box against the voter’s name labelled FA (denoting “Failed Accreditation”) at the left margin of the voter’s details on the register.
In the events of malfunctioning of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), INEC explicitly stated the following;
(a) In the event of sustained malfunction of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), the Presiding Officer (PO) shall:
(i) Immediately inform the LGA and RA Supervisors, the Supervisory Presiding Officer (SPO), the Electoral Officer (EO), and the Election Monitoring and Support Centre (EMSC) for replacement.
(ii) Suspend Accreditation and Voting until a new BVAS is made available.
(iii) File a report of the incident to the designated Official.
(iv) Inform the voters and polling agents of the situation.
(b) Where a replacement BVAS is not available by 2:30pm, the Presiding Officer shall:
(i) Inform the LGA and RA Supervisors, SPO, EO, and EMSC of the situation.
(ii) File a report of the incident.
(iii) Inform the voters and polling agents that accreditation and voting for the affected Polling Unit shall continue the following day.
