2027: BVAS Failure Won’t Automatically Stop Election Collation — INEC Chairman

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has clarified that a technical failure involving the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) will not automatically halt the collation of results during the 2027 general elections.

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INEC Chairman, Prof. Joash Amupitan, made this known on Tuesday during a question-and-answer session at the commission’s world press conference and stakeholders’ meeting. He was responding to concerns over the technical difficulties experienced with the transmission of polling-unit results to the INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV) during the 2023 elections.

Amupitan said INEC was upgrading both BVAS and IReV ahead of the 2027 elections to improve their reliability and performance. He disclosed that the commission had acquired 57,000 additional BVAS devices fitted with inbuilt batteries, while many batteries in existing devices were also being replaced.

According to him, a technical problem affecting one polling unit or a group of polling units would not prevent electoral activities from continuing in areas where the system is functioning. He explained that collation could proceed where the affected polling units did not ultimately affect the overall outcome of the election, subject to the applicable electoral procedures.

However, the INEC chairman stressed that where BVAS fails at a polling unit and the problem cannot be resolved, the Electoral Act provides for the election in that particular polling unit to be postponed until the following day.

Amupitan also said INEC had strengthened its technical response mechanism through its Registration Area Technical Support (RATECH) teams, which he said would provide immediate assistance to polling units experiencing technical challenges. He assured stakeholders that communication channels between the support teams and polling units had also been strengthened.