Anambra guber: INEC presiding officer faints as BVAS malfunction triggers chaos

Blessing Egoigwe, a presiding officer of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), fainted during the Anambra governorship election on November 8.

According to NAN, the incident occurred at Polling Unit 005, Enugwu-Ukwu, Njikoka LGA, as voters complained about malfunctioning Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machines.

Egoigwe was thereafter rushed to an undisclosed hospital.

Over 470 voters were denied the opportunity to cast their ballots at the polling unit.

The BVAS machines could not recognise newly registered voters — triggering chaos and a disruption of the process.

Blessing Okoye, an 18-year-old first-time voter, said she could not cast her ballot because the BVAS failed to capture her fingerprint.

“My hope to vote for a candidate of my choice was dashed by INEC today,” she said.

Ifeoma Iloeze, a 55-year-old voter, said she waited from dawn until 6:29pm but was unable to cast her vote as the BVAS could not recognise her face.

“The experience was painful,” she said, and urged that alternative voting methods be introduced in future elections to avoid denying voters their rights.

NAN added that INEC technicians were alerted to the situation and visited the polling unit, but only minor improvements were made.

Officials also discovered that some deceased persons were still listed among registered voters at the polling unit.

Speaking after exercising his franchise, Chukwuma Soludo, governor of Anambra, said reports from across the state showed that voting was progressing smoothly, though “some polling units recorded minor glitches with the BVAS machines”.

“I got a report from Orumba south that the BVAS wasn’t working as expected. But all said and done, I think, on the average, it is going on smoothly,” he said.

Soludo also commended INEC for the overall conduct of the poll and described the exercise as peaceful.