The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) says its mock accreditation exercise ahead of the August 15 Osun State governorship election successfully identified and resolved a technical issue that could have prevented some voters from casting their ballots.
INEC Chairman, Prof. Joash Amupitan, disclosed this after monitoring the exercise across 12 polling units in the state’s three senatorial districts on Saturday.
According to him, the mock accreditation was designed to test the commission’s Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) under real election conditions and ensure every eligible voter can be accredited smoothly on election day.
“What could have become a major issue on election day was detected during the mock accreditation exercise,” Amupitan said.
He explained that some older Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs), particularly those issued in 2011, initially failed facial recognition because the images had faded over time.
“Our technical team, led by the ICT Director, adjusted what we call the similarity score. Once that was done, the BVAS immediately began recognising the old PVCs. The issue has been resolved completely and will not recur,” he stated.
The INEC chairman described the exercise as an important quality assurance process aimed at identifying and fixing technical issues before the governorship election.
He added that voter accreditation during the exercise took between 30 seconds and two minutes, using either fingerprint or facial recognition.
To further strengthen the electoral process, Amupitan said INEC increased the number of BVAS devices allocated for the election from 4,427 to 5,130, while backup devices were also doubled from 664 to 1,328.
The additional machines, he noted, will be deployed to split polling units in areas including Ife East, Irewole, Egbedore, Ede North and Osogbo.
“What we saw today confirms that our technological defence against identity theft and result manipulation is robust and fully operational,” Amupitan said.
He expressed confidence that the successful mock accreditation had demonstrated INEC’s readiness to conduct a credible governorship election in Osun State.
