…says a BiVAS can be deactivated from the back-end if snatched
As the 2023 general elections draw closer, the Independent National Electoral Commission has given assurance that the Bimodal Voter Authentication System, BiVAS cannot be manipulated.
The Deputy Director of Information and Communications Technology, INEC, Lawrence Bayode, spoke on Channels Television’s special election programme, The 2023 Verdict, on Wednesday.
In the past, snatching of ballot boxes and violence by hoodlums had featured during elections.
According to Bayode, the BIVAS will be deactivated from the back-end so that whoever snatched the device on election day will not be able to manipulate votes.
He said, “If a BiVAS is snatched, we have a system in place that can deactivate that particular BiVAS.
“We deactivate it so that whoever snatches the device will not be able to do anything with the device because the device pushes the accreditation data automatically on its own even without the operator pushing a button. When it is idle, it pushes that accreditation data to the back-end.”
Bayode said if hoodlums take the device to other places where they think they can manipulate the data on the device, the polling unit officer will report the incident.
He noted, “If such thing happens, the PO reports and from the back-end, that device is deactivated so that the person who took away that device will not be able to do anything with the device.”
