INEC's Amupitan Addresses BVAS Failures for 2027 Elections

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Chairman, Prof. Joash Amupitan, announced that technical failures involving the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) will not automatically stop the collation of results during the 2027 elections. This clarification was made during a press conference on Tuesday, addressing concerns about potential technical difficulties similar to those experienced in the 2023 elections.

INEC is upgrading the BVAS and IReV platforms, having acquired 57,000 additional BVAS devices with inbuilt batteries to enhance performance. Amupitan explained that if a polling unit fails to transmit results, voting will continue in other areas, and collation can proceed if the failure does not impact the overall election outcome.

However, if BVAS fails and cannot be resolved, the Electoral Act allows for the election to be postponed in that specific polling unit until the next day. INEC has also strengthened its technical support through Registration Area Technical Support teams (RATECH) to address any issues promptly.