25 Feb. (EUROPA PRESS) –
Candidates for the Nigerian elections have begun to cast their ballots this Saturday amid certain delays in the opening of polling stations during elections that use new technology to clear up complaints about the lack of transparency of the same and, in the best case, speed up the count.
Presidential candidate Peter Obi, of the Labor Party and leading the majority of the polls, cast his ballot in his hometown of Agulu, in Anambra state, shortly after fellow candidate Bola Tinubu, of the Congress of All Progressives.
There is also evidence of violent incidents in the state of Kogi, where a young man was shot dead by members of a criminal group that took electoral material, according to local sources in the Daily Trust newspaper.
Most of the complaints from citizens are addressed to the so-called Bimodal Vote Accreditation System (BIVAS), used by voters to verify their identity through fingerprint or facial recognition.
The system continues to cause problems throughout the country, electoral officials have recognized the governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike, when he was unable to cast his vote. This is the second time BIVAS has been used across the country, following last year’s state elections, when it already caused numerous delays.
The system that is being used for the first time is the electronic transmission of votes to the server of the electoral commission, which in theory prevents the manipulation of the results during the physical transfer of the ballots, the object of constant complaints in the past. .
This would mean that the results of the elections could be communicated more quickly, a huge advantage in the most populous country in Africa, where 82.7 million people are eligible to cast their ballots among the 18 candidates to succeed the current president, Muhammadu. Buhari.
