Supplementary polls: INEC to reconfigure 2,500 BVAS
The Independent National Electoral Commission has said that over 3,000 Bimodal Voter Authentication Systems would be deployed for the supplementary elections, scheduled for Saturday, April 15.
A top official of the commission, who spoke to our correspondent on Tuesday, said that over 3,000 BVAS would be configured and re-configured.
INEC would conduct supplementary elections in 2,660 polling units across 185 local government areas of 24 states.
Elections for 26 governorship, 104 senatorial, 329 national and 935 state Assembly seats had been concluded and winners declared.
The commission had noted that all outstanding governorship, national and state Assembly supplementary elections would be held where they were previously suspended due to hitches, including violence, for which the exercise was declared inconclusive.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, an INEC source said over 2,000 BVAS would be re-configured and some new BVAS replacing the stolen or damaged machines during the 2023 general elections would be configured.
“There are some BVAS that will be configured afresh, because the ones deployed for the previous election were either stolen or damaged.
“We cannot reconfigure stolen or damaged BVAS, so we need to configure fresh device for such PUs.
“We are reconfiguring close to 2,500 BVAS and configuring few numbers afresh plus backups.
“The total BVAS that will be deployed, including backup, will be a little above 3,000,” the source said.
Supplementary governorship elections will be held in 20 LGs of each of Adamawa and Kebbi states. Both states have 21 LGs each.
In Adamawa, the elections will be held in 69 polling units and 142 PUs in Kebbi state with 36,935 and 94,209 eligible voters, respectively.
For the state Houses of Assembly positions, elections will be held in 57 constituencies across 17 states.
They are Akwa Ibom (one); Bayelsa (one); Ebonyi (five); Edo (three); Ekiti (one); Imo (one); Kaduna (five); Kano (14); Kebbi (eight); Niger (four); Ogun (one); Taraba (one); Yobe (one); Jigawa (three); Katsina (three); Enugu (one); and Adamawa (four).
Senatorial elections will be held in the northwestern states of Sokoto, Kebbi and Zamfara.
Meanwhile, supplementary elections for the House of Representatives will be held for 31 constituencies in 15 states.
They are; Akwa Ibom (two), Anambra (one), Bayelsa (one), Edo (one), Imo (one), Kano (two), Kebbi (two), Kogi (one), Oyo (two), Rivers (two), Sokoto (11), Taraba (one), Zamfara (two), Jigawa (one) and Ebonyi state (one).
