Ahead of the 2027 general elections, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has begun configuring its Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) devices.
The electoral body also disclosed that as logistical preparations ramp up, Nigerian Air Force aircraft have commenced airlifting non-sensitive election materials to various states.
Confirming the updates to Sunday PUNCH, Haruna Mohammed, Chairman of INEC’s Information and Voter Education Committee, explained that the early configuration of the BVAS units was necessary due to the extended timeframe required to complete the process.
“The BVAS are already being configured. It takes a while to configure them, so we have to start early,” Mohammed said.
He added that the Nigerian Air Force is assisting with the nationwide distribution of the non-sensitive electoral materials.
According to INEC’s timetable, the presidential and National Assembly elections are scheduled for January 16, 2027, while the governorship and state Houses of Assembly polls will hold on February 6, 2027.
Campaigning for the presidential and National Assembly races is expected to end on January 14, with governorship and state Assembly campaigns concluding on February 4.
These latest updates follow the commission’s earlier announcement that it had begun deploying non-sensitive election materials to specific parts of the country after completing readiness assessments across all six geopolitical zones.
Backstory…
The configuration of BVAS machines comes as INEC intensifies preparations for the 2027 general elections, following widespread criticism of the commission’s handling of the 2023 polls.
The Bimodal Voter Accreditation System was introduced to strengthen voter verification by using fingerprint and facial recognition technology to prevent multiple voting and accreditation fraud.
However, its deployment during the 2023 presidential election was marred by technical difficulties, including delays in voter accreditation and failures in the electronic transmission of results to the INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV).
Meanwhile, this move comes just days after the commission removed 1,608,660 invalid entries from its voter registry and flagged 54 individuals across ten states for disciplinary measures and potential prosecution over alleged registration tampering.
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