The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), has once again dismissed fears of manipulating results of 2023 general elections in the country.
The Edo State Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Mr Obo Efanga made this known while playing host to Edo Media Executives in his office in Benin City, capital of Edo State.
Mr Efanga stated that the new electoral law had addressed virtually all the grey areas that could encourage rigging of elections.
He also allayed the fears of hacking INEC server, explaining that only form EC8A containing results of the election would be screenshot and uploaded to the server while the original form would be in custody of INEC officials and relevant stakeholders.
Mr. Efanga, disclosed that politicians cloning PVCs would not be able to use them as Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, BVAS would be used for accreditation to capture finger prints and faces of voters, thereby making it impossible for incident form for manual accreditation.
The REC, further pointed out that network would not be needed to vote because BVAS had been configured with biometrics of all registered voters in every polling unit, adding that the BVAS would last longer than the period of voting if fully charged.
He also explained that INEC does not have the means of determining winners of 2023 general election because nobody could manipulate the electoral process going by the new electoral law.
He, however advised politicians to concentrate on how to convince the electorate to vote for them instead of dissipating energy to complain of possible manipulations of elections.
Mr. Efanga who decried the high level of unverified and misleading information on social media, however advised journalists in mainstream media to always verify information before going to press in order not to misinform members of the public depending on them for accurate information.
He advised each member of the fourth estate of the realm to have a copy of the electoral law and election guidelines so as to have a grasp of the law and acquaint themselves with INEC guidelines to be able to discharge their duties effectively.
Earlier, Chairman of the Edo Media Executives, Mrs Abimbola Oyetunde, said that the essence of the visit was to know the preparedness of INEC towards 2023 general election.
Mrs Abimbola who is also the General Manager of Bronze FM, Benin, said the group was ready to partner the electoral body for enlightenment of members of the public and called for regular meetings to address grey areas relating to next year’s general election.
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