From Paul Osuyi, Asaba
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Saturday hailed the turnout of prospective voters in Delta State during the mock accreditation with the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS).
Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in charge of the state Monday Udoh-Tom gave the commendation while monitoring the exercise in selected polling units.
Udoh-Tom said the commission was encouraged by the experience, adding that the people were now believing in the ‘one man, one vote’ mantra.
“The one man, one vote is coming to pass on the 25th of this month. What INEC has been preaching about has come to stay. It is going to be one man, one vote,” Udoh-Tom said.
He assured the people of the validity of the 2011 voter cards, noting that some of the cards “have been tested and they are working. The cards you have picked up newly are also working.”
Speaking further, he told eligible voters in the state to come out en masse to cast their votes during the forthcoming election, saying; “on that day of the election, do not sit back at home; come out and vote whoever is your chosen candidate.
”I also assure you that there won’t be a problem of network failure during accreditation. We don’t use the network for accreditation or voting. We only use the network for uploading and sending results.”
In some of the units visited, the exercise was successful as the BVAS functioned maximally.
At Ekou Primary School (ward 09, unit 01) in Ika North-East Local Government Area, a total of 30 persons were accredited as of 10:00 am.
Also, 20 persons were accredited at Omi Primary School (ward 2, units 1) in the same locality, as of 9:50 am
One of the prospective voters who participated in the exercise, Kennedy Asha commended INEC for the outcome of the exercise.
Asha said: “I came here for my accreditation and within five minutes, I was accredited. I must commend INEC for this initiative, they should keep it up.”