The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has defended the security of its Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), saying additional safeguards have been deployed to protect the election technology despite concerns about its Android operating system.
INEC’s Director of Information and Communication Technology (ICT), Dr. Lawrence Bayode, gave the assurance during an interview with ARISE NEWS on Monday, August 10.
Bayode confirmed that the BVAS devices are currently running Android version 10, the same operating system installed when the devices were procured in 2021.
He, however, said the commission was not relying solely on Android’s built-in security features.
“We are not relying solely on the security of the operating system. We’re also deploying our own security on the BVAS that ensures that our BVAS is secured.”
Bayode was responding to concerns raised about the age of the operating system following observations by a civil society organisation.
“It is currently running on Android version 10. And that was the version that it was deployed with when we first procured the BVAS. So, our BVAS has never run on Android 3, 2, 6 or 7. It is currently running on Android version 10.”
The INEC official acknowledged that the devices were originally supplied with Android 10 but rejected the suggestion that this automatically left the election technology vulnerable.
“Apart from the security that came with Android 10, we are also deploying our own security to secure the BVAS system. Apart from the security that comes with that version.”
He also explained why INEC had not simply upgraded the devices to a newer Android version. According to Bayode, such an upgrade would require corresponding changes to the hardware and other components to ensure that the devices continued to operate efficiently.
“It’s not just easy for us to begin to upgrade from the version that we deployed on the BVAS when they were first procured in 2021. Yes, we procured those BVAS with Android version 10. And you know, the specification then was for you to run on Android version 10. And at the time, we were comfortable with that version.”
Bayode said upgrading the operating system without improving the devices’ capacity could affect their performance.
“So, if you want to upgrade now to a higher version, then a lot of things, it means that you have to upgrade a lot of things. You have to upgrade the RAM. You have to upgrade a lot of things so that it does not slow down the system.”
He again stressed that the BVAS devices had never operated on older Android versions such as Android 3, 2, 6 or 7.
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“It is currently running on Android version 10. And that was the version that it was deployed with when we first procured the BVAS. Our BVAS has never run on Android 3, 2, 6 or 7. It is currently running on Android version 10.”
Bayode also addressed concerns arising from the recent mock accreditation exercise, saying the challenge encountered by some voters was not caused by a failure of the BVAS.
“The mock did not fail. What happened on that day was a threshold. The similarity score of those who registered or who received their BVAS in 2011, the similarity score was the threshold that we said was too high for them.”
He explained that the mock exercise was partly intended to generate data that would allow INEC to fine-tune the system before election day.
“We needed data to ensure that we set the correct threshold so that nobody will bring, for example, your PVC and the system will just accredit there. Nobody will bring my PVC and the system we’re accrediting.”
According to Bayode, INEC adjusted the relevant threshold after analysing the data, after which the exercise continued without further difficulty.
“As soon as that was achieved, we pushed it to the system on that day, and the exercise continued seamlessly.”
He further assured Nigerians that the two critical applications used on the BVAS, voter accreditation and the uploading of election results to the INEC Result Viewing (IREV) portal, were functioning properly.
“The two key application runs on this system, the BVAS on election day, the accreditation system that is used to accredit voters and the app that is used to upload results to the IREV. They’re working fine.”
Bayode maintained that the mock exercise should not be viewed as a failure but as part of the commission’s process of testing and improving its systems before elections.
“The mock did not fail. It worked fine. And that is what is expected when you carry out a mock exercise. You are carrying out a mock exercise to test the system, preparing it for the day of election,” he said.