The BVAS is a technological system designed and carried out by INEC (Independent National Electoral Commission) to allow voters to be accredited either through fingerprints or facial recognition, during an election process. BVAS means Bimodal Voter Accreditation System.
This BVAS is a new system used by the INEC officials on duty on the day of the election to avoid over-voting throughout the voting units in a specific state or country. It is also used to scan and upload the result sheets to the INEC Result Viewing (IReV) portal www.inecelectionresults.com.
As explained, this machine is still new, it’s used in place of the “card reader” as used in previous elections. BVAS is easy to start, use and control during the election process, without any stress. The machine comprises the “Software” and “Hardware” components. A voter must show his/her PVC (Personal Voters Card) at the polling unit before he/she is allowed to vote.
Why is the Machine called a Bimodal?
This Bimodal feature on the BVAS has been a great advantage for the voters that want to cast their vote and the INEC officials that are going to accredit them.
We all know that ‘Bi’ means ‘two’ (2). This simply means there are two ways of accrediting legible voters, this is by “fingerprint” verification or “facial” (photo) verification. A voter can only use one of these methods. If a voter fingerprint is accepted, then no need to use the facial (photo) again, and if the BVAS accepts a voter facial (photo) verification, then there is no need for doing the fingerprint again.
And failure to accept any of these two (fingerprint or photo) from a voter means the voter will not be allowed to cast his or her vote. This bimodal feature on the BVAS is very much appreciable and even eases the work of the INEC officials on duty on election day when compared to the card reader being used before the BVAS that only has the fingerprint for verification.
Features of the BVAS
For this technological machine to function well, there must be some key features that make up (comprises) the BVAS. Below are the features of the BVAS and their function:
- Fingerprint scanner: This feature is very important for capturing the fingerprint of the voters before they can cast their vote.
- Front camera: This is majorly used to capture the face of the user or the operator of the BVAS on the day of the election, most especially the APO1.
- The touch screen: This is the screen of the BVAS, where activities are carried out by tapping on the screen.
- Back camera: In order to do the facial matching of the voters, the back camera of the BVAS is required to carry out this task.
- LED flash (Flashlight): As this can also be found on phones, this feature is located behind the machine, just right beside the back camera. The led flash can be ‘on’ at night in cases where there are many voters or where there is a delay in the accreditation of voters.
- Power button: This is on the left side of the machine. This is used to ‘on’ and ‘off’ the machine. The user needs to press the button for just 3 seconds, the INEC logo will pop up on the screen.
- Microphone: This is located at the side of the machine and just at the top of the power button.
- Volume button (up and down): This is found under the power button located at the side of the machine.
- USB type A port: For charging through the power bank or the charging adaptor using a USB type-A cable.
- USB type C port: This is also charging of the BVAS with a USB type-C cord.
- Speaker
- SIM card and SD card slot
- Battery
There is also a power bank to serve as a backup in case the battery is running down. So that there won’t be any stop-over or slowdown in work just in search of electricity.
The main functions of the BVAS
There are several functions that can be carried out by the BVAS machine, part of which is the following:
The BVAS is used for accreditation, in search for voters’ information, just by scanning the QR code on the voter register or scanning the Barcode on the PVC, or by using the last six (6) digits of the VIN on the voter’s card or by using the last name of the voters on the voter’s accreditation system.
To authenticate and confirm the real owner of the card, we verify fingerprint or facial matching on the BVAS.
For scanning and uploading each polling unit (PU) result to the INEC Result Viewing Centre (IReV) portal.
Also Read:
- How to Check BVN on Mobile
- How to Create a Gmail Account
- Easy way of using fingerprint lock in protecting your WhatsApp chats on Android
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