Though peaceful, voting has been quite slow in most of the polling units visited in the ongoing Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Area Councils election. The slow process, BusinessDay observed is largely due to malfunctioning Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machines used for both fingerprint and facial authentication.
The BVAS machines are also inadequate, while disorderliness was observed, a situation which led to some of the voters turning up to cast their votes leaving in disappointment.
For instance, in polling unit 37/02/02/003, Kuduru Ward, Bwari Area Council, voting commenced at about 10 am, but barely 30 persons had voted as at 12:40 pm. The polling unit has a total of 2642 registered voters. This unit has only one BVAS machine for hundreds of persons gathered and this has greatly slowed the voting process. BusinessDay keenly observed that it could take up to 5 minutes to capture and verify one person.
In Kuchiko /old GSS 004 polling unit, the BVAS machine broke down for at last one hour leaving voters stranded, there was also a very poor internet connection. The entire process is very disorderly despite the presence of security operatives. The situation is the same for Zango and Guto polling units, where voters are expressing deep concerns that most of them may not have the opportunity to exercise their franchise.
Almost all these polling units visited have one BVAS machine. It was also observed that while some polling units are crowded with thousands of registered voters, some had as little as five registered voters who turned up. Officials in these units were basically idle.
Low voter turnout was also observed in places like Maitama and Asokoro, which are some of the highbrow, elitist areas in the city. Intact, it was observed that in some of the polling units, voters did not turn up, while INEC ad-hoc staff sat idling away.
BusinessDay further noticed an incidence of vote-buying at Jamb headquarters carpark unit 10. A former Senate President of Nigeria shared some cash for youths which caused chaos and great disorderliness. In polling unit 37/02/02/003, APC agents were giving voters N1,000 and PDP N500.
Meanwhile, a yet to be identified middle-aged woman supporter of one of the major political parties in the ongoing Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Area Councils election was knocked down to death.
The incident happened close to the PU048 -Salasi, opposite Post Office, Karu in the Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC) when the woman, a prospective voter, was attempting to cross the road to her polling unit.
The party supporter whose details are still sketchy was recklessly riding on a motorcycle adorned with the flag of his political party.
The killer motorcycle rider was immediately apprehended and handed over to security operatives deployed for the election.
Efforts to get details proved abortive as the security operatives refused to speak on the matter as it was beyond their official capacity and rules of engagement.
Meanwhile, the exercise is being stalled not just by the malfunction of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), but also by the fact that the restriction order by the FCT Command of the Nigeria Police Force was relaxed last minute.
In some of the Polling Units monitored by our Correspondent, including PU 001, PU 002, and PU 025 the BVAS were either not capturing voters’ fingers and faces or slow.
Some of the Presiding Officers, mostly members of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) who did not want their identity disclosed complained that issues will BVAS were very frustrating.
“The whole thing is frustrating. The BVAS is very slow in that it takes more than 10 minutes to accredit one voter. Sometimes the device will not even capture the fingerprints and faces of the voters. This has made some of them go back. We are thinking of calling the Registration Centre Officials for a solution,” one of the Presiding Officers said.
Read also: FCT Council elections yet to start 2 hours after scheduled time
This amidst the assurance by INEC that it has reviewed the performance of the BVAS in the recent Anambra State Governorship election with a view to improving them for optimal performance in the FCT Polls.
INEC Chairman, Mahmood Yakubu at the last extended stakeholders meeting ahead of the FCT election on Tuesday said lessons learned from the Anambra election have been considered in planning for the Area Council elections.
“The BVAS has been configured and ready to deploy for the election. We have also made adequate arrangements for technical support and transportation to speedily respond in the unlikely event of glitches”, he said.
Also, there is a low turnout of voters as voting commenced much later than the 8am slated time. Poll officials were also sitting idle when our Correspondent visited
PUs 011 at Nyanya market and 025 at Morning Star Hotel in AMAC.
Furthermore, Covid-19 protocols such as physical distance and use of face masks were not observed by voters who queued up at most of the PUs visited but the poll officials have hand sanitizers and other protective items provided by INEC.
