The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has conducted mock accreditation exercise to ascertain the Bimodal Voter Accreditation Systems (BVAS) deployed for next week’s governorship election in Ondo State were working effectively.
It conducted the mock accreditation in six local government areas of the State.
Some voters who turned out for the exercise said they were captured within one minute.
National Chairman of INEC, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, who visited some polling units where the mock accreditation exercise held, also visited some local government offices of INEC to see the level of their preparedness for the election.
Among the polling units monitored by Prof. Yakubu were Ward 4, unit 41 and Ward 5, unit 18 in Akure South, Ward 10 unit 12 and One in Idanre LGA.
Yakubu, in a chat with journalists after monitoring the exercise, urged governorship candidates and their political parties to maintain existing peace in the State.
Yakubu noted that the electoral body would be able to conduct free and fair election if the parties and their supporters maintained peace.
He explained mock accreditation exercise was to further test functionality of their system.
According to him: “In the last election the machine performed optimally but we can not take that for granted.
“We will ensure that all the polling unit open on time so that voters will not come and wait for INEC officials and materials.
“And we have test the integrity of the machine, is not the matter of deploy early but also accredit early
“We are doing our best as Electoral Commission and other should also do their best particularly political parties and the candidate
“I want to appeal to political parties, candidates and their supporters to ensure that they maintain the peace that will enable us to deploy in good time , concluding the processes in good time.
“And also to announce the candidate people of Ondo State are choosing as their governor on Saturday,” he said.