In order for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to use the Bimodal Voter Registration System (BVAS) for the 2023 elections, the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria, or HURIWA, pushed on it on Monday.
Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, the national coordinator of HURIWA, called for the creation of an electoral offenses commission in a statement in order to punish corrupt electoral officials and prevent them from endangering the upcoming general elections.
The organization remarked that it is astounding how desperate politicians become while seeking a restraining order to prevent INEC from using BVAS in the elections of the next year before the Imo State High Court.
The group claims that the general elections in 2017 will be a game-changer and a death sentence for politicians who have mastered the art and practice of rigging elections in order to keep themselves in power like Methuselah.
The Electoral Act of 2022 specifies the BVAS, a technical system that permits, among other things, the online uploading of results and the certification of voters through the collection of biometric data.
Many people have hailed it as an improvement over the smartcard reader used in the most recent general elections, which had some positive effects on the nation’s voting system.
Two essential technical advancements for boosting election results transparency and raising voter confidence in election outcomes are BVAS and the Election Result Viewing Portal (IReV).
Inaccuracies in the number of registered voters, collation of false results, mutilation of results, computational errors, swapping of results sheets, forging of results sheets, snatching and destruction of results sheets, obtaining declaration and return involuntarily, and making declaration and return are among the ten most pervasive flaws in the nation’s election result management process, according to INEC.
A scheme to sabotage the 2023 elections by politicians opposed to the use of BVAS allegedly was exposed last month by opposition political groups in Nigeria operating under the auspices of the Coalition of United Political Parties. Mahmood Yakubu, the chairman of INEC, has maintained that the organization is committed to using BVAS technology to deliver a free, fair, credible, and transparent election.
Commenting, HURIWA’s Onwubiko said, “INEC must be resolute in the deployment of the BVAS for the electronic transmission of results of elections in Nigeria come 2023. Next year’s elections are crucial for Nigeria’s continued existence and the best man, the true representative of the people, should emerge through the ballot.
“The 2023 elections must never be allowed to be jeopardised by rogue politicians desperate to perpetuate themselves in power or for politicians so greedy that they think it is their turn to be the President of Nigeria and so they are prepared to use criminal means to manipulate the election. Nigerians must remain eternally vigilant”
In order to show that election-riggers will be dealt with, HURIWA also calls for the National Electoral Offenses Commission to be passed quickly and signed into law. This is in line with the argument made by INEC Chairman that the country’s electoral process will not be fully completed if electoral offenders are allowed to continue operating freely.
Election offenders, according to HURIWA, are as heinous as terrorists and economic saboteurs, so they must be dealt with decisively by an unambiguously established independent commission supported by an enabling Act. However, this commission must not be overstaffed or used as a hiring ground for political thugs; instead, its staff should be limited to 50 competent Nigerians.
