Two local government chairmen in Lagos State have lauded the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) over improvement in the use of Bimodal Voters Accreditation System (BVAS) for the Gubernatorial and House of Assembly elections.
The duo of Fatai Ayoola, Ajeromi Ifelodun, Local Government and Emmanuel Bamgboye, Mushin Local Government, gave the commendation after casting their votes in Lagos on Saturday.
Ayoola observed that INEC officials at the polling units were faster with the usage of the device as against the Presidential elections.
“On the BVAS issue, I can see that people are now getting used to it unlike during the Presidential election when some of the ad hoc officials were still strange to the device.
“Today, they handled the equipment very well which made it faster than before.
“So, in all, I can say that Nigerians are now becoming used to BVAS,” he said.
Ayoola said the reports from different polling units and wards showed that the electorate voted and conducted themselves orderly.
He said there was no form of harassment from anybody because all the security agencies, including the Police, were around to ensure that the exercise was seamless.
On his part, Bamgboye said INEC had fulfilled its commitment to improving the electoral process through an improvement in the BVAS.
“The BVAS performance has been a tremendous improvement compared to past experience.
“By all standards, we are seeing improvement over time and our democracy will be better for it. We can say we have had a more improved BVAS performance.
“The peace and tranquility we saw in this election is as a result of the BVAS,” he said.
Bamigboye said it had helped to remove voter’s identity theft unlike before when they could pick other people’s voter’s cards to vote.
An APC Chieftain, Mr Rabiu Oluwa, noted that so far there was no issue with the BVAS which worked fine.
Oluwa said that the transmission of result electronically would further reduce the incidence of rigging of election in the country.
Mr Sobur Oluwa, APC Candidate for Ajeromi-Ifelodun Constituency II, Lagos State House of Assembly, said the turnout of voters was impressive.
Oluwa explained that some of the complaints that were made during the Presidential elections had been rectified in this election.