BIVAS: Political parties can’t regulate INEC, says Okoye

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has clarified that political parties cannot act as watchdogs over the commission’s activities. INEC National Commissioner and Chairman of the Information and Voter Education Committee, Festus Okoye, explained on Sunday night that the commission was created to regulate political parties, not the other way around.

Okoye addressed reports that the Labour Party (LP) claimed, on March 10, 2023, that INEC deliberately reconfigured the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) after its presidential candidate, Peter Obi, sought to examine election materials. The party also disputed INEC’s assertion that it had backed up data retrieved from the BVAS without independent witnesses or party representatives. Additionally, the Presidential Election Petition Court at the Court of Appeal in Abuja had granted INEC’s request to reconfigure the BVAS used in the presidential poll.

Speaking on Channels TV’s *Politics Today*, Okoye said the Labour Party’s request to monitor the commission’s reconfiguration and data‑back‑up process would not be granted. “On the issue of a political party saying they want to come and look at our cloud, IReV, or into the brain of the BVAS, the commission will not allow that to happen,” he stated. “Every political party that deploys polling agents has a copy of the polling‑unit level results. If a party now says they want to come into the commission to look at the same thing their agents already have, we won’t allow it because the law does not permit it. The commission is the regulator of political parties, and parties cannot, despite various circumstances, seek to regulate the commission. The commission will not allow that.”

Okoye also affirmed that parties and individuals wishing to express grievances through peaceful protest over the conduct of the February 25, 2023 presidential poll are welcome at INEC’s headquarters. “The commission is a public trust. Any Nigerian with a grievance has the constitutional and legal right to come to the commission to protest,” he said. “We will not prevent any individual, group, political party, or association from protesting because the commission is a public institution, and we cannot bar anyone from exercising that right.”