The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has expressed delight over the participation of residents of Ondo South Senatorial District in today’s bye-election, declaring that the exercise will remain transparent and credible despite network challenges experienced in some polling units in the district.
Speaking with journalists during an assessment of the election on Saturday, the Ondo State Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Mutiu Agboke, said the commission had put mechanisms in place to address technical issues while ensuring that no voter is disenfranchised.
Agboke noted that the election commenced smoothly across most polling units, with officials arriving early and voters demonstrating enthusiasm to participate in the exercise.
“First, we saw that people have been enthusiastic to participate in the election. Early this morning, we saw the early opening of the polls. Our officials were at the various polling units to open on time. In fact, as early as about 7:43 a.m., some of the centres had already settled down. So largely, the majority of the polling units opened on time,” he said.
The REC acknowledged reports of network disruptions affecting the operation of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) in some locations but described the challenge as a technical issue being addressed by the commission.
It is something from the centre and I am sure our technical team is looking at it. What we are using is a machine and anything can happen. But the responsive attention given to such challenges by INEC is what shows that we are professional in this job.”
He stressed that election activities were ongoing across the six local government areas in the senatorial district and that the commission remained committed to resolving any challenges as they arise.
In all the six local governments, activities are taking place. Our local government officials are very busy. Our supervisory and returning officers are around and everybody has been working. So far, so good.”
Agboke also commended the peaceful atmosphere surrounding the election, revealing that no security incident had been recorded.
“Security has been well provided for everybody. So far, we have not had any report of any incident and we have not recorded any casualty in any way.”
Also speaking, INEC National Commissioner, Professor Kunle Ajayi, reassured voters and political stakeholders that the commission’s result management process remains transparent and verifiable.
Ajayi explained that after votes are counted at polling units in the presence of party agents, the results would be uploaded through the BVAS to the INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV) while physical result sheets would proceed through the established collation chain.
“After counting at each polling unit and entering the scores in the appropriate forms in the presence of party agents, they will sign, and we will use the BVAS machine to upload the result to the INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV).”
He clarified that IReV serves as a public viewing platform and not a result-calculation system.
“IReV is not a counting machine. It simply displays the uploaded result sheets. The total score will only be determined at the final collation centre, which is the senatorial collation centre.”
On concerns that network issues could prevent some residents from voting, the National Commissioner assured that all voters already on the queue before the close of polls would be attended to.
“It is a network provider problem and not necessarily our problem. However, anybody who is already on the queue will still be attended to. Even if it is 6 p.m., we will still attend to them.”
