Some elderly voters were left stranded on Saturday at Ezienwelu Polling Unit 001, Nimo Ward 2, in Njikoka Local Government Area of Anambra State, after the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machines failed to recognise them.
Many of the affected men and women, some well into their seventies, said they had arrived at the centre as early as 7 a.m., hoping to vote, but were unable to do so because the BVAS could not capture their faces.
A 76-year-old woman, Mrs Ifeyinwa Okafor, expressed her frustration while speaking with Punch.
“Although the INEC officials arrived as early as 8 a.m., accreditation did not start until 30 minutes later. The exercise is going on smoothly but slowly,” she said.
“They asked us to sit down because the machines were not capturing our faces. We were told the reason could be that our faces have changed and that they need to capture us through thumb-printing. For us, We have been waiting patiently here until they call us to cast our ballots. But we suspect the reason the machine did not capture us may be due to network issues.”
However, one of the polling officers, who did not want to be named, explained that the problem had nothing to do with network failure.
“The BVAS did not capture the aged people because their faces have likely changed. It is not because of a network issue; the BVAS doesn’t operate with a network,” the official said. “But we are sorting it out. We have asked them to wait while we review the issue, but if it is not resolved by the end of the day, they will vote using thumb-printing.”
As of 12:20 p.m., voting was still ongoing peacefully at the polling unit, with INEC officials trying to resolve the hitches and ensure that everyone had a chance to vote.
Naijaonpoint reports that Saturday’s governorship election in Anambra features 16 candidates representing different political parties, all aiming to unseat the incumbent governor, Chukwuma Soludo of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA).
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