The Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) has declared the mock accreditation exercise it conducted over the weekend successful. The mock accreditation exercise took place on Saturday 4th January 2023 in 436 selected polling units across the country, in preparation for the 2023 general elections.
The exercise started at 8:00am as scheduled and voters began getting verified and authenticated with their PVCs and fingerprint capturing. If a voter had an issue with their finger print, they were authenticated via the facial capturing. The process took less than two minutes per Voter.
It was also reported that the process was faster with facial capturing than it was with finger prints capturing.
The INEC chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, who monitored the process in Abuja said the process was successful, adding, “in the polling units visited so far, no reports of failure. The machines performed optimally and this is the report we are getting nationwide.” He also said that the commission would make spare machines available on the day of elections, so that if there was a malfunction, the machine can easily be swapped and fixed without losing time.
While INEC officials were on site to monitor the process in the named locations, Rivers state had a delegation from the European Union (EU) Elections Observations Mission present at its venue.
In Lagos, the exercise was reported to have recorded a massive turnout of participants across the selected polling units. The State Resident Electoral Commissioner, Mr. Olusegun Agbaje gave positive positive remarks about the machines and about the exercise as a whole. He said, “We have been to six stations, two each in Surulere, Somolu and Ikeja LGAs. So far, the machines are working effectively and there is no challenge or problem, and this has been confirmed by the people.” He also confirmed that facial capturing was easily used where fingerprints capturing failed.
An observer from The Guild of Public Affairs Analysts in Ikeja, gave kudos to INEC for the functionality test and urged politicians to cooperate with the commission to achieve a free and fair election. Agbaje in his remarks has said INEC is ready and further emphasized that the system is tight and reliable.
He said, “what we need to know is that these machines can effectively accredit our voters and that has been tested in all the six stations we have visited and I am more than satisfied than INEC is ready to go.”
