Uncertainty over next election as INEC seeks to ‘reconfigure’ BVAS
Written by Olarotimi Oshin on March 8, 2023
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has urged the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal to amend the orders that were granted to candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Labour Party (LP), Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi respectively, to inspect materials used for the last presidential election.
The Commission, in a motion on notice filed on March 4, is praying the court to vary the order, which restrained it from tampering with materials used for the election.
INEC said it needed to reconfigure the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) for the next round of elections.
Recall that the appellate court had on March 3, granted leave to Atiku and Obi to inspect election materials used by INEC to conduct the controversial February 25 poll.
The guardian reports that the court granted the order sought by the two parties, following two separate ex parte applications filed by Atiku and Obi, who came second and third respectively in the election won by Asiwaju Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
The application filed by the Commission is asking the court to vary the order to allow it to reconfigure its BVAS for the March 11 governorship and state houses of assembly elections.
Meanwhile , the Presidential Election Court sitting at the Court of Appeal, Abuja on Tuesday adjourned till Wednesday today to rule on the application by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) seeking to vary the court’s order for inspection of materials used for the conduct of the February 25, 2023 presidential election.
