The Anambra gubernatorial election held across the southeast state on Saturday amid complaints over failure of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) in many wards in the state
It was gathered that many voters in Akwa ward located in Ifitedunu Dunukofia local government area of the state, have been left stranded as the BVAS machines have continued to malfunction or at best remain erratic in its operation.
Earlier, The New Diplomat had reported that the Polling Unit/Ward, PU 002, Ward 13, Isuofia, Aguata LGA, that has over 200 people has not been able to accredit anybody since 7am, hence voting was yet to commence. The BVAS failure had also made it impossible for Prof. Charles Soludo, Candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) to cast his ballot there as of the time of filing this report.
Also, voters in Enugwu-Agidi Ward 1; polling unit 001 and polling unit 002 in Njikoka L.G.A have also lamented the failure of card reader machines.
Voters at Omagba phase 2, Onitsha north local government area of the state have also complained that no activity had commenced.
Similarly, the flag-bearer of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Dr. Valentine Ozigbo, who casted his vote at Amesi, Aguata, LGA lamented the delay in voting process caused by the malfunctioning card readers.
He also appealed to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), to extend the voting to allow eligible voters perform their civic duty.
In his words, “I was actually impressed that the people of Amesi community are out in their numbers. For me, if not for the delay, everything is going perfect. I am worried that it took that number of minutes to be able to cast my vote. I was hoping that I will just come and do that in quick session. It got to a point that the network failed and we had to improvise. If we couldn’t find that solution, I wonder what would have happened. Imagine those in remote locations, where there may be even poor network, we need to make sure we recognize those peculiarities.
“What that means is that we need to extend the voting time, so we don’t allow people who are eligible not to cast their vote. That will be unfortunate. So, I am not only commenting on this, I also by this appealing to INEC and all the stakeholders to exercise patience and ensure that the right people who have all the authentication cast their votes.”
