Osun Election: Mock accreditation exercise saves voters from disenfranchisement — INEC chair

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) chairman, Prof. Joash Amupitan, has affirmed that a mock accreditation exercise conducted ahead of the Osun State governorship election successfully identified and resolved a critical issue with the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS). This proactive measure, he stated, prevented potential voter disenfranchisement on election day.

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What could have become a major issue on election day was detected during the mock accreditation exercise. The problem had to do with some old PVCs whose facial images had become faded over time. Most of them were issued in 2011, and the BVAS initially could not recognise those images.

During the exercise, which Prof. Amupitan monitored across 12 polling units, a significant problem emerged: some older Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs), especially those issued in 2011, had faded facial images that the BVAS devices could not reliably recognize. This issue was reported from multiple locations, prompting an immediate response from INEC's Information and Communication Technology (ICT) team.

The commission's technical team, led by the ICT Director, adjusted the BVAS 'similarity score.' This adjustment enhanced the system's ability to recognize facial images on the older PVCs, resolving the problem completely. Prof. Amupitan emphasized that this issue, which could have caused major disruptions on election day, has been fixed and will not recur.

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It was reported from several polling units, and 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.

The mock accreditation served as a crucial quality assurance protocol, stress-testing the technological infrastructure under real election conditions. Beyond the BVAS recognition issue, the exercise confirmed that voter verification, using either fingerprint or facial recognition, typically took between 30 seconds and two minutes. In response to field observations and concerns from political parties, INEC also increased the number of BVAS devices allocated to Osun State from 4,427 to 5,130, along with an expanded pool of 1,328 backup devices for immediate intervention in case of malfunctions.

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The mock accreditation exercise is our quality assurance protocol. It is designed to stress-test our technological infrastructure under real-world field conditions before the actual election, and it was successful.