The Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) mock accreditation exercise ahead of the August 15 Osun State governorship election suffered a setback on Saturday after the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machines developed technical faults across the designated polling units.

The exercise commenced as scheduled at about 8:00 a.m. in selected polling units across the state, with prospective voters arriving to participate in the mock accreditation designed to test the functionality of the BVAS ahead of the governorship poll.

However, reports from the various centres indicated that the BVAS machines stopped functioning at about 9:36 a.m. The devices reportedly failed to recognise the fingerprints, facial features and photographs of voters whose details were already contained in the voters’ register, forcing the exercise to a halt in the affected polling units.

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The mock accreditation was being conducted in 12 local government areas spread across Osun’s three senatorial districts. The selected councils include Osogbo, Olorunda, Ifelodun and Boripe in Osun Central; Egbedore, Ede North, Ede South and Ejigbo in Osun West; as well as Ilesa West, Ilesa East, Oriade and Obokun in Osun East.

INEC had earlier announced that the exercise was intended to assess its level of preparedness for the August 15 governorship election by testing the efficiency of the BVAS under conditions similar to Election Day. The commission also clarified that no voting would take place during the exercise, urging registered voters in the selected polling units to participate with their Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs).

When contacted, the Public Relations Officer of the Osun State INEC office, Dayo…