By Abdul Hassan
Human rights activist and former presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC), Omoyele Sowore, has disclosed that the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) told political stakeholders that Indian electoral authorities consider Nigeria’s continued reliance on the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) a distraction from more advanced voting technology.
Sowore disclosed this on Channels Television’s FROM 12:17 Morning Brief while weighing in on the ongoing debate over electronic transmission of election results and broader electoral reforms.
According to him, the INEC chairman shared the remark during a recent meeting with political party representatives.
Sowore said the commission’s leadership recounted an engagement in India, where officials reportedly questioned why Nigeria was still investing energy in BVAS rather than transitioning to full electronic voting.
“We had a meeting with the INEC chairman, and he told us that the Indians told him that we are wasting our time with BVAS,” Sowore said.
He explained that India, which has about 900 million registered voters, conducts elections using electronic voting machines (EVMs) across the country.
In contrast, Nigeria, with roughly 90 million registered voters, continues to rely on manual voting complemented by BVAS for voter accreditation and result uploads.
BVAS, introduced by INEC in recent election cycles, is designed to accredit voters using biometric verification and upload polling unit results to the INEC Result Viewing (IReV) portal.
However, Sowore argued that the system remains limited because it does not replace manual voting or collation, leaving room for disputes and post-election litigation.
He suggested that a more robust electronic voting system would allow voters to cast ballots digitally, confirm their choices instantly, and generate verifiable records that could reduce manipulation and eliminate many of the controversies that trail Nigerian elections.
Sowore’s comments come at a time when the National Assembly is debating amendments to the Electoral Act, particularly on whether electronic transmission of results should be made mandatory.
While much of the public discussion has focused on strengthening BVAS-backed result transmission, Sowore maintained that Nigeria should be thinking beyond incremental reforms.
