The late arrival of electoral officers has delayed the commencement of Saturday’s council area elections in some parts of the Federal Capital Territory( FCT), Abuja.
Across several polling units monitored by PREMIUM TIMES, the Independent National Electoral Commission officials arrived at their polling units much later than 8 a.m., when voting was scheduled to commence.
Some voters were seen in several polling units in different area councils waiting for the officials to arrive to commence the process.
At Polling Unit 029, Kuje Central, voting had yet to commence at 10:12 a.m.
INEC officials were just setting up to start the exercise at PU 028, 029 Phase 111 primary school Gwagwalada as of 10.03 a.m.
At Bwari, PU 38 ward 02 at Dantata Estate by the security gate, the setting up of voting booths did not start until 9:45 a.m. A similar situation was observed at PU 021 ward Bazango Kofar Sarki by Junction, where it started at 10:29 a.m.
Malfunctioning of BVAS
Aside from the late arrival of INEC officials and materials, there have been complaints about the malfunctioning of the Bimodal Voters Authentication System (BVAS) machines.
At PU 031 Kuje Central, even though voting started, it was slowed down because the machine was malfunctioning. The Registration Area Technician was seen trying to fix it.
The BVAS replaced the Smart Card Reader (SCR). It has the dual capacity for fingerprint and facial identification to prevent the use of stolen voters’ cards.
As of 10:39 a.m. at PU 35 Demonstration primary school voting was stalled due to malfunctioning BVAS
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