The national chairman of the All Progressives Congress, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, expressed concern about the proposed use of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System for the 2023 general election.
Adamu expressed his reservation when a Commonwealth delegation for the 2023 general election paid a courtesy visit to the party secretariat in Abuja on Wednesday.
the punch reports that there are only 93 days left for the elections.
INEC’s stance was the result of the Abuja Federal High Court’s refusal to grant the sentence of four plaintiffs who sued the commission for suspending the voter registration exercise on July 31.
However, on Wednesday, Adamu revealed that he doubted whether the introduction of BVAS for real-time election broadcast would produce a fair result for the nation in the 2023 elections.
The former governor of Nasarawa said: “To broadcast the results to all parts of the country, I’m not sure the network will cover it; I know that even in parts of Abuja there is no grid, and we have from now until February when substantial parts of the country are without electricity.
“The INEC must assure us 100 percent that from the date on which they must transmit the results they are ready because they talked about recharging batteries. But we heard in previous elections when he said he couldn’t reload.”
Adamu’s fear was echoed by the party’s National Organization Secretary Suleiman Argungu, who identified stable power supply as one of the obstacles facing innovation.
Argungu also used his home state of Kebbi as an example of an area where such technology could experience some problems.
In part, he said, “…For example, my state, Kebbi, which borders two countries. You can’t easily get people on Nigerian, Glo, MTN and Airtel networks. If you want to get them, you have to use the numbers of the other countries to contact them. So, during the election, I don’t see how the transmission of results will work.”
Addressing reporters after their meeting, Commonwealth delegation political officer Lindiwe Maleleka explained their mission, saying they were at the APC secretariat on a ‘pre-election assessment’ assignment.
Meanwhile, the Peoples’ Democratic Party has rebuked the APC national president for questioning INEC’s ability to transmit the 2023 results in real time from voting units to a central server.
Party spokesman Debo Ologunagba said the ruling party was already nervous knowing that with the BVAS, its chances of rigging the ballot box would be limited.
“The APC knows that it has no chance of winning the elections in this country if the process is transparent. At a time when everyone praises INEC, APC’s national president expresses doubts. What does that tell you? The ruling party does not want the 2023 elections to be credible, free and fair. The PDP is completely behind the INEC in the use of BVAS and the planned transmission of results in real time.
“BVAS was used in Ekiti and Osun states and the process was found to be credible. INEC has improved over the years. We urge all political parties to support the commission in its mandate to deliver credible elections in the country in 2023 and beyond,” he said.