16th November, 2024
By Alaba Olusola Oke /Emmanuel Oloninruha
The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC has reacted to claims that the Bio modal Voter Accreditation System( BVAS) machine could not capture faces of some elderly voters during the Saturday’s Ondo governorship election.
A Presiding Officer, Miss Angela Oshogwe, manning Poling Unit 19, Ward 11 Olamojuba, Ondo in Ondo West Local Government Area of the state, said that she had lodged the complaints to the concerned authorities that the BVAS were not capturing faces of elderly people.
She added that the response she got was that the complaint was not limited to her polling unit, stating that the elderly had been waiting for long to vote without success.
According to her, there is the possibility of the BVAS to function before the close of voting.
Reacting to the complaint, Rotimi Oyekanmi, the Chief Press Secretary to INEC Chairman said the commission was aware of the development in “very limited” polling units.
“We are aware that in very limited cases, a few elderly voters couldn’t be accredited by the BVAS at first attempt. But, in subsequent attempts, the problem was resolved.
“A Presiding Officer in one polling unit (PU) out of 3,933 PUs in Ondo State is not in the position to say how widespread a technical problem is.
“From the reports at our disposal, so far, the BVAS is performing satisfactorily. It is not unusual for technical issues to occur in a major off-season election like the one we are conducting today.
“We anticipated it and made adequate arrangements to respond to any type of challenge,” Oyekanmi said
A septuagenarian, Mrs Agnes Olapade, who was affected by the technical problem, said that she was disappointed that she could not vote due to malfunction of the BVAS.
Olapade said she had been at the polling unit, with other affected elderly voters, since 8:00 a.m. without being able to vote.
According to her. she voted in the previous elections without any difficulty.
Similarly, Mrs Rukayat Olawoye, 87 years old, said that she came out because of the voting but was disappointed at the difficulty occasioned by the BVAS.
Another septuagenarian, Mrs Ronke Fayankimi, stated that she and other affected voters would continue to wait, to see if the BVAS would capture their faces.
NAN
