BVAS only as effective as network providers allow — INEC

The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Prof. Joash Amupitan, SAN,, has said the efficiency of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System depends heavily on the strength of Nigeria’s telecommunications network.

Amupitan stated this on Wednesday in Abuja at the Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room’s Stakeholders’ Forum on Elections, where he delivered a special address on securing the nation’s democracy.

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He said while BVAS had transformed voter accreditation and curtailed manipulation, its performance in some polling units was still affected by poor network coverage, especially in remote locations.

“A tool like the BVAS is only as good as the network it runs on,” he said, adding that the Commission was in continuous engagement with the Nigerian Communications Commission and network operators to find lasting solutions. He noted that INEC was also exploring alternative technologies and building system redundancy to reduce the impact of connectivity challenges.

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The INEC chairman stressed that credible elections required collaboration among political parties, civil society organisations, the media, security agencies and the Commission. According to him, the 2022 Electoral Act and the deployment of technology had improved transparency, particularly through the INEC Result Viewing Portal, which he said had become “the new baseline for trust.”

Amupitan, however, warned that technology alone could not solve all electoral challenges, especially voter apathy. Citing the 2023 general elections, he described the 27 per cent voter turnout as a threat to democratic legitimacy. He highlighted the success recorded in Anambra, where PVC collection rose from 63.9 per cent to 98.8 per cent after targeted mobilisation.

He announced that the Continuous Voter Registration exercise had recorded 2,685,725 completed registrations nationwide, with Osun, Kano, Sokoto and Imo States leading. He urged civil society groups and the media to sustain awareness campaigns as the first quarter of the exercise ended on Tuesday.

Amupitan also confirmed that the Federal Capital Territory Area Council election would hold on February 21, 2026, as the tenure of the current chairmen and councillors ends next year.

On vote-buying, he said the Commission had intensified collaboration with security agencies under the Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security to curb inducement at polling centres.

“Leadership is not about the next election; it’s about the next generation,” he said, calling for stronger consensus to build an electoral system that is transparent, accountable and beyond reproach.

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