…Vows To Review, Use BVAS In Governorship, State Assembly Elections
INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, stated this weekend, while giving his address at a meeting with Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs) in Abuja.
Yakubu said winners were declared for 423 legislative seats, indicating that supplementary elections would be conducted in 46 other constituencies.
The elected legislators include 98 out of 109 Senate, and 325 out of 360 House of Representatives seats. Seven parties won in the Senate, while eight parties won House of Representatives seats.
“Certificates of Return will be presented to Senators-elect on Tuesday 7th March 2023 at 11.00am at the National Collation Centre (the International Conference Centre), Abuja, while Members of the House of Representatives-elect will receive theirs the following day, Wednesday 8th March 2023, at 11.00am at the same venue,” he said.
“However, for effective crowd management, each Senator/Member-elect should be accompanied by a maximum of two guests. The comprehensive list of all members-elect will be uploaded to the Commission’s website shortly.”
According to him, in terms of party representation, the 2023 set is the most diverse National Assembly since 1999.
Yakubu also, gave the assurance at the meeting with all state Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs) at the INEC headquarters in Abuja.
According to him, the BVAS machines will be used for the elections, though the devices are being reviewed to avoid a repeat of the glitches recorded with last Saturday’s elections.
“On Election Day technology, the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) will once again be deployed for voter accreditation and result management,” Yakubu said.
“The deployment of BVAS has gone a long way to sanitise voter accreditation as can be seen from the result of recent elections.
“Since last week, the Commission has intensified the review of the technology to ensure that glitches experienced, particularly with the upload of results are rectified. We are confident that going forward the system will run optimally.”
The meeting was held exactly one week after the presidential and National Assembly elections, and one week to the governorship and state assembly elections.
In his welcome remarks, the INEC Chairman noted that the meeting was to review performances at the last week’s elections, adding that there were lessons to be learnt from last week’s elections, especially as it relates to logistics management.
He urged the RECs to work harder to ensure that the governorship elections do not experience the same glitches recorded with the last elections, while calling for disciplining of staff members who erred.