INEC resolves glitches, extends voting till tomorrow in some areas – ITREALMS

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The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has revealed that technical glitches have been largely resolved but extended voting till tomorrow in any area where there is persistent failure of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), reports ITREALMS.

The Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) of Anambra State, Dr. Nkwachukwu Orji made this known on the progress of the governorship election at the collation centre, INEC State headquarters, Awka on Saturday.
“I am happy to report that the technical glitches we experienced with our new Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) were largely solved,” he said.

INEC also applauded voters turnout and candidates for patiently waiting for the problem with the devices to be resolved.

“To be sure, these may not have been resolved perfectly everywhere, but the reports we got from our field officers and independent observers convince us that most voters were able to vote with the BVAS, following the extension of voting period to 4.00pm and our regulation that any voter on the queue at that time must be allowed to vote,” he said.

Orji pointed out that any Polling Unit where there was a consistent malfunction of the BVAS, and therefore the voters in the Unit were unable to vote, “the election will be continued tomorrow.”

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Although he said, they were yet to receive reports of any location where the sustained malfunction of the BVAS led to no election at all.

“Still, we shall continue to receive reports through our usual channels, particularly from the collation of the Form EC40G, which is the official document for recording Polling Units where elections did not hold or were cancelled,” he assured.

Dr Orji further said they have now entered a critical stage of the process, namely the collation of results.

“We have made adequate arrangements for collation of the results at the Registration Areas, Local Government Areas and the State level. Results from Polling Units are already being uploaded to our INEC Result Viewing (IReV) portal and the Registration Area and LGA collation have been progressing well. I implore all stakeholders to be patient while this painstaking process progresses,” he said.

The REC disclosed that the State Collation will commence tomorrow at the State Collation Centre at the State Office and invited all those who are entitled to be present – Collation Officers, accredited Polling Agents, observers and the media – to attend the State Collation, which will open at 10am tomorrow morning.

“I want to thank the security agencies for the exceptionally professional way they have supported the election. I believe that they will continue to provide this first-class support throughout the rest of the process. I also thank you, the media, for the balanced way you have reported the election, particularly the early challenges,” he said.