The Peoples Democratic Party PDP ,on Thursday January 30, 2025, made remarkable headway in its bid to upturn the out come of the September 21,2024, off-circle gubernatorial polls in Edo State with the Election Petition Tribunal now sitting in Abuja, formally admitting in evidence the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System BVAS used for the polls.
The PDP is presently challenging the outcome of the polls which threw up Governor Monday Okpebholo of the All Progressive Congress, APC, as the winner.
The Independent National Electoral Commission INEC, had initially opposed the request by the PDP for the submission of the machines used in accrediting voters during the election but had to succumb in the face of a subpoena.
The Source reports that,the PDP had anchored its petition against the results of the election on alleged over-voting and bogus allocation of figures far more than the number of accredited voters.
The BVAS which were officially presented by the Electoral umpire during the Tribunal session on Thursday, is expected to provide a clear insight into the actual number of voters accredited for the election.
It is also widely seen as having the huge potentials of establishing discrepancies between the number of accredited voters and the figure announced during the election .
For one ,the PDP has continued to insist that ,the final figures of the election were manipulated in favour of its rival ,the APC.
The party has equally been adamant in its stance that the number of votes announced were far in excess of the number of both registered and accredited voters in most places.
Most of the PDP witnesses have testified to the huge discrepancies between the number of votes announced and strength of voters accredited using the BVAS
Not a few observers are of the belief that the decision of the Tribunal to admit the BVAS machines in evidence represents a turning point in the entire battle over the outcome of the election by the two contending parties.
Notwithstanding the figures announced by INEC, the BVAS machines will come handy in providing the number of accredited voters at every polling unit .
Already, the PDP, even before the admission of the BVAS machines had to some extent been able to establish glaring discrepancies between the number of votes declared and the ones officially accredited in some areas, including Oredo and Akoko Edo Councils.
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