In order to eradicate electoral result manipulation, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) claims to have implemented crucial technological safeguards to the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS).
This was revealed by INEC Chairman Prof. Joash Amupitan (SAN) on Wednesday in Abuja at a meeting with RECs and the inauguration of Dr. Chukwu Joseph as the Abia REC.
According to Amupitan, the improvements were made especially to protect the result management system and guarantee the accuracy of data sent to the INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV).
“I must not overlook the enhancement we have made to our system for managing results.
“We have determined that the actual compilation of the results at multiple levels poses a greater threat to our democratic process than voting at the polling places.
“We have added some safeguards to the BVAS system to prevent any kind of manipulation of the results that are sent to IREV,” he stated.
The upgrade, according to Amupitan, requires the presiding officer to take a picture of the filled-out Form EC8A and upload it to the IReV.
The presiding officer is also responsible for directly entering each political party’s score into the BVAS gadget, he noted.
Internal validation checks are carried out by the BVAS system to make sure that the total number of votes cast does not surpass the number of accredited voters.
The entered figures exhibit mathematical consistency. He stated, “Over-voting is automatically flagged and cannot be finalized.”
According to Amupitan, the enhancements were tested during the polls for the Kano and Rivers States Constituencies as well as the FCT Area Council on Saturday.
He mentioned that the election results were posted to IREV and determined to be accurate.
He stated, “As of right now, 97 percent of the results from the FCT Area Council election have been uploaded to IREV.”
Additionally, the INEC Chairman revealed that INEC would shortly begin reviewing its rules and policies in preparation for the 2027 poll.
Additionally, during the Saturday FCT area council election, Amupitan pronounced the alleged manipulation of the election results at the Kuroko Health Center voting station in Kwali Area Council to be false and untrue.
He clarified that an examination of the online-viral claim showed that a presiding officer had made a clerical error by recording 122 for a party rather than 121.
She also made word corrections to the figures. The result that was later appropriately placed into the Ward Collation’s collation form EC8B was exact and correct.
Due to the investigation’s findings, the FCT REC was forced to write a public release regarding the incident as well as a few other situations that involved changes.
“I must tell you all that Nigerians are looking to us with heightened anticipation and scrutiny, even though there is no perfect election.”
Amupitan stated, “I must stress that there is no room for error or excuse in this crucial process.”
The head of INEC also revealed that the Commission would shortly release an updated Timetable and Schedule of Activities for the 2027 General Election in light of the Electoral Act 2026’s passage on February 13.
Additionally, he said that the Commission would soon start a revalidation process to guarantee a “thorough clean-up” of the voter register in order to bolster its integrity.
“The previous warning was sent out in accordance with the previous legislation. We must make certain changes and release an updated schedule for the 2027 general election in light of the new Electoral Act.
Additionally, our voters’ revalidation exercise needs to be mentioned.
Before the 2027 General Election, he stated, “The commission will soon begin a comprehensive clean-up with a view to further sanitize and strengthen the integrity of the register.”
In addition, Amupitan stated that the Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) second phase would continue till April 17.
“The entire CVR exercise is planned to last for a year and will end on August 30,” he stated.
Additionally, in preparation for the general elections in 2027, Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs) across the country have been instructed by Prof. Joash Amupitan, Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), to step up voter education and sensitization efforts.
Amupitan issued the directive on Wednesday in Abuja during a meeting with RECs and the swearing-in of Dr. Chukwu Chukwuemeka Joseph, the new REC representing Abia.
In addition, he encouraged voters nationwide to locate their voting places (PUs) using the INEC tools that are now available in advance of the 2027 elections.
Voter indifference remained a major issue that required “continuous, not episodic” engagement, according to the chairman, despite a slight increase in voter turnout during the most recent FCT Area Council elections.
Despite a slight improvement in the FCT, voter indifference was still evident in turnout.
Participation in this election increased from 9.4% in 2022 to almost 15%, with over 239,000 voters casting ballots compared to 148,685 in 2022.
“A lot of work needs to be done to increase voter confidence and engagement,” he stated.
Amupitan clarified that no voters were relocated in 2026 in response to the public concern over purported “voter migration” in the FCT.
He clarified the 2022 voter redistribution project, which aimed to increase access by clearing out 12,000 voting stations and constructing more than 56,000 new ones across the country.
In order to minimize crowding and enhance the voting experience, Amupitan clarified that INEC did not relocate voters to a different neighborhood, stating that the new PUs were situated within the same building just a few meters from the old ones.
About 6.7 million people were moved from roughly 12,000 crowded polling places to new 17,000 less crowded ones nationwide in 2022 to fill the newly constructed units, many of which had no registered voters at first, he said.
411 polling places were cleared out in the FCT alone, and over 580,000 voters were re-distributed across 1,156 polling places. That exercise was conducted in 2022, not 2026, four years ago.
“During the general election in 2023, the same voters in the FCT cast ballots in those polling places,” he stated.
Amupitan recalled that INEC learned that several voters had complained that their voting places had been moved in 2022 but they were having trouble finding the new ones during the mock accreditation on February 7 in the FCT.
The INEC chairman further noted that, before to the election, he promptly ordered that impacted FCT voters receive new texts and emails, particularly those whose polling places were moved in 2022.
He claims that this will act as a reminder to make sure that everyone who is eager to cast a ballot can easily find their polling place, particularly for the benefit of those who did not cast a ballot in the general elections of 2023.
“The Polling Unit Locator at https://cvr.inecnigeria.org/pu, which may easily assist people in finding the polling unit, was included in the text messages and emails received.
“I also ordered that the voter register be re-displayed in all affected polling stations for a minimum of four days so that voters could verify their names before the FCT election,” he added.
In the days leading up to the election, Amupitan added, some voters still had trouble finding their voting places despite extensive marketing, the display of the Register of Voters, and the distribution of emails and texts to impacted people.
He claimed that the development showed that, “if citizens do not understand our processes, then the objective is only half achieved.” INEC’s principles may be sound, and its objectives may be noble.
“For this reason, I instruct all RECs to step up voter education and awareness campaigns in their states. The knowledge of voters must not be sporadic. It has to be ongoing.
The commission’s online Polling Unit Locator at https://cvr.inecnigeria.org/pu should be used by citizens to confirm their polling unit data well in advance of elections.They should personally visit their polling places prior to election day, if required.
“In order to help those who did not cast ballots in the general elections of 2023 find their polling places in advance, we must start to spread this important information now,” he stated.
