The Secretary to the Osun State Government, Teslim Igbalaye, has decried the slow pace of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) during the ongoing Osun State governorship election.
Igbalaye raised the concern shortly after casting his vote at Ward 7, Unit 7, in Osogbo Local Government Area of the state on Saturday.
In an interview conducted by a NPO Correspondent, the SSG commended residents for coming out to exercise their civic rights despite reports of gunshots and other incidents of violence recorded in parts of the state ahead of the election.
“I appreciate our people for coming out despite reports of gunshots and other violence before today. But they still came out to cast their votes,” Igbalaye said.
However, he said the slow response of the BVAS was delaying the accreditation process, noting that it was taking a considerable amount of time to accredit voters, capture their photographs and authenticate their fingerprints.
Igbalaye urged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to take urgent steps to address the challenge, warning that the slow process could leave voters waiting until late in the day.
“I observes that the BVAS is slow. It takes a lot of time to get people accredited, take picture and capture voter thumbprint. I urged INEC to take urgent action on it.
“For instance, there are about 900 voters waiting to cast their ballots here. The slow process can delay the voting. We urge INEC to help work on it and make it faster so that voters won’t be here till night,” he said.