The European Union Election Observation Mission (EUEOM), in its latest report on the outcome of the 2023 general election in Nigeria, has highlighted the controversy surrounding the deletion of election data from the bimodal voter accreditation system (BVAS) between the February 2023 presidential election and March 2023 governorship elections
In its final report, ‘Election Observation Mission Nigeria 2023,’ the EU stated that INEC failed to indicate what data was erased from the BVAS and what was stored on the back-end server.
“The BVAS machines deployed on 25 February were used again in the same polling units on 18 March. Between the elections, BVAS was reconfigured, which also included the deletion of accreditation and results data from the previous polls and subsequent storing of the data on the back-end server.
“INEC did not inform clearly what data exactly were deleted from the BVAS and what exactly were stored on the back-end server,” EU stated.
In addition, the foreign observer group accused INEC of a lack of trust and transparency in assuring relevant election stakeholders that any data erased from the BVAS would be stored on a back-end server.
Before the general election, INEC had reiterated its commitment to complete compliance with the BVAS machine in the 2023 elections.
A digital forensic expert, Hitler Nwuala, had told the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) in Abuja that INEC deliberately deleted all the results of the BVAS.
BVAS is the machine used to accredit voters using their Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) and fingerprints or face recognition technology.
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Political parties had warned that deleting the presidential election data could compromise sensitive election information stored from the exercise, which was held on February 2023.
INEC had argued that it was necessary to delete and back up the data on a back-end cloud server in order to repurpose the BVAS machines from presidential election mode to governorship election.
Main opposition parties, the PDP and Labour, have continued to raise the controversy over the tampering
of the BVAS files at the presidential elections tribunal, saying INEC should offer more transparency about its action. The report by the EU appeared to share the concerns of the opposition party, although it remained unclear how the decision of INEC would affect the outcome of the tribunal.
