Biometric voter machines feature in Nigeria’s post-election litigations

Various election tribunals in Nigeria have in the past months been hearing cases related to either the presidential and National Assembly elections in the country in February, or the state governorship elections in March, with the biometric Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) admitted as evidence in multiple cases.

The BVAS is a two-factor biometric authentication system which Nigeria’s National Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) introduced in the general elections this year to eliminate some recurrent electoral malpractices witnessed over the years.

Although the use of the technology was hailed by the government as a game changer for free and fair elections in Africa’s largest democracy, there were however questions about the integrity and efficiency of the system supplied from China. Some hitches were reported.

While some analysts argue that the BVAS made this year’s elections one of the most transparent and credible in the history of Nigeria, there are those who think there were still failures which had a negative toll on the general outcome of the polls.

So, as the different candidates and political parties involved in the elections have been in the courts with post-election litigations, the BVAS appears to be a regular aspect of evidence tendered to or admitted by tribunals.

In the State of Kano, all the 21 BVAS machines used in the 21 Local Government Areas of the state were delivered by INEC as evidence in a case in which the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) party is challenging the election of the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPC) candidate Abba Kabir-Yusuf as governor of the state.

Recently, an INEC official petitioned the court to allow the BVAS machines supplied to remain in INEC’s custody and to be brought back to court only when they are needed, Peoples Gazette reports, citing the News Agency of Nigeria. The official justified his request by saying that if allowed with the court, the BVAS machines could run out of batteries, which would require reactivation using codes obtainable only from China.

The outlet adds that while the counsel to the petitioner (APC) objected to the BVAS machines being taken back, counsels to Kabir-Yusuf and the NNPC did not. The last hearing on the matter took place on July 12.

In the South eastern state of Enugu, five BVAS machines were also recently tendered by the counsel of the Labour Party to prove their case, writes The Guardian.

The Labour Party candidate in the state governorship election, Chijioke Edeoga, is challenging the election of Peter Mbah of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP). The counsels for the PDP and Peter Mbah are reported to have objected to the tendering of the BVAS machines. The next hearing on the matter takes place July 18.

Other than these two states, the BVAS machines have also been tendered and admitted as evidence in post-election petitions in other states such as Osun where the machines proved in guiding the decision of the tribunal, according to The Whistler.

At the level of the presidential election, opposition candidate of the PDP and main challenger of President Bola Tinubu, Atiku Abubakar, on May 30, also tendered documents obtained from BVAS machines to the presidential election tribunal in Abuja. He has been challenging the election of Tinubu.

Article Topics

Africa  |  Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS)  |  biometrics  |  elections  |  fraud prevention  |  Nigeria  |  voter  |  voter accreditation