The Chairman of Tai Local Government area, Sir Mbakpone Friday Okpe has decried the persistent failure of the Bimodel Voters Accreditation System (BiVAS) machines used by the independent National Election Commission (INEC) in last Saturday Senatorial bye-election in Rivers South-East District of the State.
Okpe who spoke to newsmen in his hometown Kira community, said he had been inundated with reports of a number of malfunctional BiVAS machines deployed to various units for the elections. According to the chairman, the election officials were not been able to quickly attend to prospective voters queing for the elections as a result of the number of the reported malfunctioning machines. Okpe therefore called on the electoral umpire to consider the deployment of more engineers to the various wards in subsequent elections to promptly configure the machines whenever issues arises, adding that issues of networks failures especially in the rural areas should be corrected before the main elections in 2027.
He however applauded INEC for the innovations introduced in the electoral process as against the previous system where people use to disappear with ballot papers and boxes with results written in their homes and hotels.
“As it is now, the current configuration of BIVAS is so fantastic, that you cannot easily evade any of procedures in the election,” he stated.
The Tai council boss who expressed satisfaction with the orderly conduct of voters in the community, described the elections as peaceful and seamless, devoid of violence, fights and acrimony. Hon. Okpe appealed to everyone to keep the tempo up to the conclusion of the exercise, when voting and results collations will end and final winner is announced.
On his part, a former commissioner for Social Welfare in the state, Joe Poroma who expressed delights at the opportunity and previlege of casting his vote in Polling unit 10, in the community, said the election was highly needed to provide a voice to replace the late former Senator Barry Mpigi. Poroma who was also former Federal commissioner in the Federal Civil Service blamed the rain for the low turnout out of voters.
He said the incoming Senator will have mountains of tasks to carry out in the Senatorial zone, in order to be remembered adding that the Late Senator Mpigi left a legacy by the supporting the establishment of the Federal University of Environment Technology.
