Soludo says he won’t vote until the last voter is able to vote. He insists that he would wait and must cast his vote like other voters
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has extended the voting time in the Anambra governorship election to 4 pm over the malfunctioning of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) in some polling units.
But in the polling unit of All progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) with almost 1,000 voters have been waiting, no election is taking place. The technology is failing.
As of 3:45 PM, only about 15 people have so far managed to vote. There has also been no communication from INEC on why the election equipment is not working at Soludo’s polling unit, and also in his strongholds.
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At the polling units of the All Progressives Congress candidate, Andy Uba, the election has been concluded with the technology presenting no challenge. Soludo how that was possible.
The malfunctioning of BVAS has been reported in some polling units across the state.
In a statement issued by Nwachukwu Orji, resident electoral commissioner of INEC, on Saturday, the commission said the extension applies to areas where polling units were opened after the commencement period of 8:30 am.
INEC called for patience, assuring the electorate that no voter will be disenfranchised and all votes will count.
“The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has extended the period for opening and closing of the poll from 8.30 am to 4.00 pm. This revised closing time applies to areas where Polling Units opened after the commencement period of 8.30 am. In line with existing regulations and guidelines of the Commission, any intending voter who is on the queue by 4.00 pm shall be allowed to vote. All Polling Unit staff must comply with this directive,” the statement read.
INEC also adds: “The extension of time arose out of several field reports that voters have had problems with accreditation. The Commission is currently investigating the reason the accreditation devices, Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), have worked perfectly in some Polling Units, but not in others.
“In some of the cases, it would seem that this resulted from software glitches. Our technicians have already built an update to the devise software to prevent further challenges. The update is currently being installed in the concerned BVAS and we request voters, candidates and agents to be patient and allow our technical staff to solve the problem.”
Election stats
The elections are holding in 5,640 polling units across the 21 Local Governments and 326 wards of Anambra State
Anambra originally has 4,608 polling units, but INEC created an additional 1,112 for the purpose of this election. 86 polling units have no registered voters; hence, elections won’t be taking place there.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) says 2,525,471 registered voters would be participating in the election.
Security deployment
The Nigerian Police Force deployed announced that it would deploy more than 34,000 personnel outside those serving in the state for the election.
Apart from the police, the military, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, Nigeria Immigration Service and other paramilitary agencies deployed personnel for the election.
