INEC Prepares 11,355 BVAS For Kogi, Bayelsa, Imo Polls

Ahead of the November 11 gubernatorial polls in Kogi, Bayelsa, and Imo states, the Independent National Electoral Commission has announced that it would deploy 11,355 Bimodal Voter Accreditation System machines for voter accreditation.

A top official in the commission, who spoke on anonymity, disclosed this to Punch on Sunday.

According to INEC, Bayelsa State has 2,244 polling units; Kogi, has 3,508 polling units and Imo has 4,758 polling units.

It would be recalled that the presidential and National Assembly elections held on February 25, 2023, were marred by the BVAS malfunction.

However, the commission, during reviews of the 2023 polls, insisted that the deployed BVAS recorded a 98 per cent success rate.

Speaking on Sunday, the INEC official gave the assurance that the commission would perform better in the upcoming off-season governorship elections.

He stated, “2,400 BVAS would be deployed to Bayelsa State while 5,079 and 3,876 BVAS would be used in Imo and Kogi, respectively.

“The BVAS never malfunctioned. However, we hoped to do more than what we did on  March 18, 2023.”