The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Resident Electoral Commissioner for Osun State, Dr Mutiu Agboke has said the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, BVAS is still part of the innovations bringing sanity into the electoral process in the country.
Dr Agboke also maintained that BVAS is still the game changer when it comes to elections in the country.
The Osun INEC REC made this known during a courtesy visit by members of the Osun Online Publishers Association to the INEC state office on Thursday.
According to him, “We all know that BVAS is still giving us sanity in our electoral process. We are still going to work on the beliefs and perceptions of the people on the BVAS INEC will develop and improve before every election.
“We will not rest on our oars. We will continue to do the engagement because it is very important.”
Agboke said vote buying and election violence were still common problems encountered during the electioneering process.
He said, “Vote buying is still a terrible cankerworm. Stakeholders are not facing the reality of electioneering violence and allowing it to go.
“There is a need for us to continue to engage the public and this is done for them to understand before they can stop collecting money from those who are giving them. We need to talk to their conscience.”
He also used the opportunity to outline his plans before the commencement of electioneering in Osun State.
“Again, voter education is a continuous exercise. We are going to start in a short while to go to media houses in the state.
“People must be told certain things that have enveloped our electioneering process that we should not allow to happen.
“We are going to engage the political parties. We are going to visit the political parties from May 15. Meet their executives and talk to ourselves.
“I want to liberalise the process of engagement and make people see that we can talk about these things. Do they talk to their members and do voter education at their ward meetings, congresses and political rallies?
We need to assure them that our guidelines formulated based on what we have designed will be followed to the letter, our technology, how they are going to work and entrenchment of confidence.”
He also said it is the duty of INEC as the body on ground close to the electorate to carry out certain activities which is to interface with all the major stakeholders.
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