November 11: INEC to release 11,355 BVAS Machines for Kogi, Bayelsa, Imo States elections

Kogi, Bayelsa, and Imo states will each have 11,355 Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machines in use for voter accreditation on November 11.

According to information obtained by Gistlover from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Bayelsa State has 2,244 polling places, Kogi has 3,508, and Imo has 4,758.

The electoral umpire would perform better in the upcoming elections, a top commission official who revealed the development told The Punch in an interview.

The commission maintained during reviews of the 2023 elections that the deployed BVAS recorded a 98 percent success rate, despite difficulties with BVAS malfunction during the presidential and National Assembly elections held on February 25, 2023.

The INEC official, however, stated that 2,400 BVAS would be deployed to Bayelsa State and 5,079 and 3,876 BVAS, respectively, would be used in Imo and Kogi.

“The BVAS never had a problem. But our goal was to go beyond what we accomplished on March 18, 2023.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has announced that it will approach the National Assembly to amend the 2022 Electoral Act to permit its employees who are on duty and others who work on election days to cast ballots.

This information was revealed on Wednesday in Lagos during a post-election review meeting with media stakeholders by INEC Chairman Prof. Mahmoud Yakubu.

He argued that despite being on duty, journalists and security personnel like police officers, soldiers, and others should be allowed to vote in elections.