The Osun State Resident Electoral Commissioner of Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Dr Mutiu Agboke has disclosed that the days of the commission helping politicians win election are gone forever.
He said continuous investment in technology by the commission has improved the nation’s electoral system and enhance election’s integrity in the country over the time.
Speaking with journalists in Osogbo at the weekend, the Osun REC said the major impediment to a credible election is the antics of politicians deploying thugs to disrupt poll and the commercialisation of voting.
He said the commission is striving every year to prove election integrity, hence, the deployment of BVAS and IREV to improve the transparency of the system.
His words, “INEC will continue to deepen the process with the use of technology, as I’m talking to you the commission is looking at various options of technology that can be deployed to further improve election integrity in the country.
“Look at the introduction of BVAS, it has given us the certainty of accreditation because the number of people that voted in a particular unit cannot exceed the number of accredited voters, when that happens manipulation as happen. Before now that couldn’t have happened.
“No INEC staff can assist anybody to win election. Maybe people don’t know, the technology deployed has ensured that. Even the deployment of material is being monitored on various platforms;
“how materials are moving from CBN to local government, from local government to wards, even in the morning the time you are deploying your material is being monitored on the dashboard of INEC, these are the things we use technology to achieve. We cannot be tired of the use of technology”.
He added that the controversy that surrounded the last election was due to the misunderstanding around IREV which the commission used to ensure transparency rather than for collation as widely believed.
“The misconception in the public is that our opportunity of ensuring transparency which made us create the IREV platform but it was misinterpreted.
“IREV is not a platform for the collation of results, the actual collation is at the collation center but we want you to have access to see what we are doing, that is why we upload it at each stage but people though it was for collation, hence, the noise it generated during the last general election.
“Over the years the commission has been developing every year, if you look at it from 2011 till date the only thing that remains manual now is the actual casting of the ballot.
“The registration of voters is through technology, the accreditation is through technology, the verification and accreditation is through technology even the process of uploading the results is technology not collation.
“Despite all the unnecessary noise I want you to know that the commission believes in the technology, and we cannot shy away from it”, he said.
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