2023 General Elections: INEC new game plan
The 2023 general elections will come with more innovations and use of technology to ensure credible, free and fair election. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has really advanced in its conduct of the elections. Hence, there is a new game plan.
Prior polls (in 1999 till 2015) have been marred by violence, disruptions of polls, snatching and stuffing of ballot boxes with printed ballot papers, intimidation of voters among other forms of irregularities. The electoral body now looks forward to curbing all the anomalies.
The electoral body under Prof Mahmud Yakoob has put in place Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BIVAS). This particular system has even caused panic among politicians and their jobbers who rely so much on using unconstitutional means to get to power.
The system will certainly be on ground to accredit voters. One intriguing thing about the system is that it tallies the number of accredited voters which must be in tandem with the total number of votes cast in a particular polling unit.
In a situation whereby the number of accredited voters is more than the total number of votes, the INEC has power to cancel the result of that area.
In the previous elections, of course, there were issues of over voting. A particular party and its candidates would find their way to stuff the boxes with papers. Therefore, there will be discrepancies in the number of votes and accredited voters.
This seems to be one matter INEC has taken care of ahead of the 2023 general elections. The commission deployed the BIVAS in Ekiti and Osun State, which had gubernatorial elections last year. In fact, the All Progressives Congress (APC) now relies on the system to press its case at the electoral tribunal.
The success of the system in the two aforementioned state has encouraged INEC to decide to use the BIVAS in the 2023 general elections. And that is the new change game it intends to play.
There is no doubt that no system is 100% guaranteed. The Independent National Electoral Commission has revealed its plan to conduct a mock accreditation in February. The exercise will enable the commission to identify possible issues and proffer solutions ahead of the general polls.
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