Is Election Technology the Game Changer in the 2023 Elections?

Nigeria’s new electoral act will be tested on a national scale during the 2023 general elections. The elections is holding one year after the law came into effect following presidential assent on February 25th, 2022. The Electoral Act 2022 legalises the use of technology for accreditation and transmission of election results. While this is not the first time, the commission will deploy technology for Nigeria’s election, this is the first time it is fully backed by the Electoral Act. No doubt the pre-election period has witnessed more attempts by some sections of the political class to discredit the deployment of technology in the election. However, the deployment of technology like the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) for the accreditation of voters for instance is now a mandatory requirement for elections and beyond just a policy by INEC. In addition, the deployment of the INEC Election Result Viewing Portal (IReV) will provide polling units level results uploaded from each polling unit using the BVAS.