The Independent National Electoral Commission has announced plans to deploy over 2,400 Bimodal Voter Accreditation System devices and 9,500 ad-hoc staff for the 2026 Ekiti State governorship election.

INEC officials said the BVAS machines will be used for voter accreditation and real-time upload of polling unit results to its IReV portal. The move is aimed at strengthening transparency and reducing human error during the election.

According to the commission, the 9,500 personnel will include presiding officers, assistant presiding officers, supervisory presiding officers and collation officers. Training for the ad-hoc staff is expected to begin months ahead of the poll to ensure smooth operations on election day.

Ekiti has 16 local government areas with more than 2,400 polling units. INEC noted that deploying one BVAS per polling unit, plus spares, will help prevent delays and technical issues that affected past elections.

The commission added that logistics, security and early deployment of materials will be prioritised to avoid late arrival of officials and equipment. Stakeholders have been urging INEC to improve on lessons from previous polls, especially around BVAS functionality and timely result uploads.

Source: Punch news