Nigeria’s Electoral Integrity and Bimodal Voter Accreditation System: An Assessment of Public Opinion and Voting Behavior

Abstract

In the pursuit to enhance public electoral participation, lately the electoral body introduced the adoption of a twin-technology i.e. Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) and INEC Election Result Viewing Portal (IReV), in subsequent elections. The efficacy of the twin-technology has raised a lot of apprehensions. Thus, it is against this backdrop this study assessed the public opinions and voting behaviours as regarding the worthiness and integrity of new Electoral Act with reference to INEC adoption of BVAS and IReV in Nigeria subsequent elections. The study adopted a survey research design, where data were primarily sourced from randomly sampled 400 Abuja municipal residents using questionnaires. Specifically, the study utilized descriptive analysis methods these include frequencies, percentages, charts and word-cloud in analyzing respondents views as regard awareness of the use of BVAS and IReV in Nigeria elections. It also employed the Fisher’s Exact Test to assess effects of the twin-technology awareness and its adoption on the public confidence in electoral process vis-à-vis their voting behaviour. The empirical findings from the descriptive analysis of the respondents revealed that there is great level of awareness among the public as regard the use of BVAS and IReV in subsequent elections in the country. Also, the study showed that respondents were full of praises for the innovation of the technology in Nigeria elections. Moreover, the Fisher’s Exact results showed that public awareness of use of BVAS and IReV positively influenced the public PVC collection rate. Howbeit, it revealed that public awareness of use of BVAS and IReV positively influenced voters’ turnout in subsequent General Election, if and only if electoral misconducts can be downcast. Thus, the study recommended that INEC could ensure full implementation and deployment of BVAS and IReV technology in coming (subsequent) elections. Also, INEC with NBA collaboration could ensure all electoral misconducts perpetrators are brought to justice as this would downcast electoral misconducts in the country and thereby enhancing voters’ turnout.