Informed civic guide
What is BVAS?
BVAS is the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System used by INEC to authenticate voters and support polling-unit result management.
Sources checked 11 August 2026At a glance
Key points
- Checks voter identity using biometric methods and the voter record.
- Records accreditation at the polling unit.
- Supports the secure capture and transmission of polling-unit result information.
- Does not itself declare a winner.
What happens at accreditation
An election official uses BVAS to verify that a voter is on the register for that polling unit and to authenticate the voter according to INEC's current procedure.
What happens after counting
Under INEC's 2026 process, the Presiding Officer completes the polling-unit result form, captures and uploads the form to IReV, and enters each party's score into BVAS for transmission to the collation system.
What BVAS does not do
BVAS is an accreditation and result-management tool. It does not replace the legal collation and declaration process, and it does not independently decide who won an election.
Authoritative references
Sources
- Electoral Act 2026 (opens in a new tab)
Official National Assembly copy of the current Electoral Act.
- INEC regulations and guidelines (opens in a new tab)
Current election regulations and guidance published by INEC.
- INEC: BVAS and result-management process (opens in a new tab)
INEC's February 2026 explanation of accreditation and polling-unit result transmission.