{"id":"AIBD-0859","title":"EU, Commonwealth and IRI/NDI observers find that BVAS facial recognition accredited Nigeria's 2023 voters where fingerprints failed, often faster","summary":"Three observer missions found that BVAS facial recognition accredited voters where fingerprints failed in Nigeria's 2023 elections. Two saw it work faster, and the EU mission saw fewer rejections.","date_observed":"2023-02-25","date_basis":"event","date_precision":"day","benefit_status":"reported","source_collection":null,"source_entry":null,"account":"Nigeria's Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) used the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) in a general election for the first time in 2023. At each polling unit, the device matched a voter's fingerprints or face with the biometric data stored on it. Voters who could not be verified were not allowed to vote. The European Union Election Observation Mission reported that BVAS accredited voters without major problems on 25 February and 18 March 2023. Its observers found that facial accreditation was often faster and had fewer rejections than fingerprint accreditation. The Commonwealth Observer Group saw fingerprint scanning fail widely on 25 February, while facial recognition gave much faster and better results. The IRI/NDI mission found that facial recognition worked well where fingerprint authentication failed. All three missions drew on their own observers' reports from polling units, and none counted accreditations by method. The Commonwealth group asked whether the facial software was giving false positives, and the EU mission noted that its calibration was not public. No report describes the matching software or shows that it learns from data.","category":"aggregate result","unexpected":false,"purpose":"INEC built the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System to verify each voter's identity by fingerprint or face at the polling unit and to upload the results forms.","system":"Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), facial recognition function","model_version":null,"developer":"Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), an in-house design according to the EU mission (the supplier of the face-matching software is not named)","deployer":"Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Nigeria","location":"Nigeria (polling units nationwide)","domain":"Elections","segment":null,"benefit_type":"Reduced Task Time","work_activities":["4.A.1.b.1","4.A.2.a.2"],"taxonomy_note":null,"registry_ids":{},"ratings":[{"group":"personal","depth":2,"reason":"Where fingerprint scanning failed, observers saw facial recognition accredit voters so that they could vote, and the EU mission saw fewer rejections. 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It reports its own observers' findings, and it calls BVAS an INEC in-house development.","title":"European Union Election Observation Mission Nigeria 2023, Final Report: General Elections 25 February and 18 March 2023","url":"https://www.eeas.europa.eu/sites/default/files/documents/2023/EU%20EOM%20NGA%202023%20FR.pdf","date":"2023-06-27","written_by":"independent","quote":"During both election days BVAS was able to accredit voters without significant issues. The facial accreditation process was on many occasions surprisingly faster and had fewer rejection"},{"kind":"assessment report","citation":"Commonwealth Secretariat. Nigeria Presidential and National Assembly Elections, 25 February 2023: Report of the Commonwealth Observer Group, chaired by Thabo Mbeki. Chapter 3, Legal Framework and Electoral Administration, p. 25. Letter of transmittal dated 16 February 2024. The Commonwealth Secretary-General constituted the group, which reports its own observers' findings and has no role in BVAS.","title":"Nigeria Presidential and National Assembly Elections, 25 February 2023: Report of the Commonwealth Observer Group","url":"https://comsec-web-static.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2024-03/nigeria-presidential-and-national-assembly-elections_updf.pdf","date":"2024-02-16","written_by":"independent","quote":"On election day, the Group noted widespread failure of the fingerprint scanning functionality of BVAS devices. In such instances, facial recognition was used instead, with much faster and better results. Yet fingerprint scanning is widely regarded as being more stable than facial recognition."},{"kind":"assessment report","citation":"International Republican Institute and National Democratic Institute. IRI/NDI International Election Observation Mission to Nigeria: Final Report of the 2023 General Election, 2023. Executive summary and the section on the presidential and National Assembly election day. A joint mission of two US democracy institutes, with a 40-member delegation that observed in 20 states on 25 February 2023.","title":"IRI/NDI International Election Observation Mission to Nigeria: Final Report of the 2023 General Election","url":"https://www.ndi.org/sites/default/files/IRI_NDI%20Final%20Report_2023%20Nigeria%20IEOM.pdf","date":null,"written_by":"independent","quote":"Observers noted that the BVAS largely functioned properly, although some polling officials struggled to understand how to operate the system and in many cases the BVAS failed to authenticate voters via fingerprints, while the facial recognition feature functioned well."}],"replication":{"produced_by":["The BVAS device matched each voter's fingerprints or face with the biometric data stored on it at the polling unit.","Polling officials switched to the facial mode when fingerprint matching failed, as INEC's procedures allowed."],"must_hold":["The register must hold a usable facial image for each voter.","The face-matching threshold must be strict enough to avoid false matches, which the observers could not check."],"echoes":[]},"paired_incident":null,"headline":"*BVAS* face matching accredited Nigerian voters when fingerprints failed","metric":null,"comparator":{"against":"Fingerprint accreditation on the same BVAS devices","before":"Widespread failure of fingerprint scanning (Commonwealth group)","after":"Much faster and better results with facial recognition","basis":"measured","quote":"On election day, the Group noted widespread failure of the fingerprint scanning functionality of BVAS devices. 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Final Report: General Elections 25 February and 18 March 2023, section VII (Election technology), b. Implementation, pp. 19-20. Presented 27 June 2023. The mission states that it is independent in its findings and conclusions. It reports its own observers' findings, and it calls BVAS an INEC in-house development.","title":"European Union Election Observation Mission Nigeria 2023, Final Report: General Elections 25 February and 18 March 2023","url":"https://www.eeas.europa.eu/sites/default/files/documents/2023/EU%20EOM%20NGA%202023%20FR.pdf","date":"2023-06-27","written_by":"independent","quote":"During both election days BVAS was able to accredit voters without significant issues. The facial accreditation process was on many occasions surprisingly faster and had fewer rejection"},{"kind":"assessment report","citation":"Commonwealth Secretariat. Nigeria Presidential and National Assembly Elections, 25 February 2023: Report of the Commonwealth Observer Group, chaired by Thabo Mbeki. Chapter 3, Legal Framework and Electoral Administration, p. 25. Letter of transmittal dated 16 February 2024. The Commonwealth Secretary-General constituted the group, which reports its own observers' findings and has no role in BVAS.","title":"Nigeria Presidential and National Assembly Elections, 25 February 2023: Report of the Commonwealth Observer Group","url":"https://comsec-web-static.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2024-03/nigeria-presidential-and-national-assembly-elections_updf.pdf","date":"2024-02-16","written_by":"independent","quote":"On election day, the Group noted widespread failure of the fingerprint scanning functionality of BVAS devices. In such instances, facial recognition was used instead, with much faster and better results. Yet fingerprint scanning is widely regarded as being more stable than facial recognition."},{"kind":"assessment report","citation":"International Republican Institute and National Democratic Institute. IRI/NDI International Election Observation Mission to Nigeria: Final Report of the 2023 General Election, 2023. Executive summary and the section on the presidential and National Assembly election day. A joint mission of two US democracy institutes, with a 40-member delegation that observed in 20 states on 25 February 2023.","title":"IRI/NDI International Election Observation Mission to Nigeria: Final Report of the 2023 General Election","url":"https://www.ndi.org/sites/default/files/IRI_NDI%20Final%20Report_2023%20Nigeria%20IEOM.pdf","written_by":"independent","quote":"Observers noted that the BVAS largely functioned properly, although some polling officials struggled to understand how to operate the system and in many cases the BVAS failed to authenticate voters via fingerprints, while the facial recognition feature functioned well."}]}},"provenance":{"kind":"legacy_record","basis":"Editorial assignment.","record_fields":["evidence"],"source_refs":[]},"review_state":"record_mapped","coverage":"partial"},"sources[].id":{"state":"value_present","value":{"kind":"identifiers","identifiers":["AIBD-0859-source-0001","AIBD-0859-source-0002","AIBD-0859-source-0003"],"role":"Existing evidence items, in their original order"},"provenance":{"kind":"curatorial","basis":"Editorial assignment.","record_fields":[],"source_refs":[]},"review_state":"record_mapped","coverage":"complete"},"sources[].language":{"state":"unresolved","provenance":{"kind":"curatorial","basis":"Editorial assignment.","record_fields":[],"source_refs":[]},"reason":"This is an explicit unresolved assignment: the sources on record do not settle this question.","review_state":"not_assessed","coverage":"partial"},"sources[].relationship":{"state":"value_present","value":{"kind":"record_fields","fields":{"evidence":[{"kind":"assessment report","citation":"European Union Election Observation Mission Nigeria 2023. 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Chapter 3, Legal Framework and Electoral Administration, p. 25. Letter of transmittal dated 16 February 2024. The Commonwealth Secretary-General constituted the group, which reports its own observers' findings and has no role in BVAS.","title":"Nigeria Presidential and National Assembly Elections, 25 February 2023: Report of the Commonwealth Observer Group","url":"https://comsec-web-static.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2024-03/nigeria-presidential-and-national-assembly-elections_updf.pdf","date":"2024-02-16","written_by":"independent","quote":"On election day, the Group noted widespread failure of the fingerprint scanning functionality of BVAS devices. In such instances, facial recognition was used instead, with much faster and better results. Yet fingerprint scanning is widely regarded as being more stable than facial recognition."},{"kind":"assessment report","citation":"International Republican Institute and National Democratic Institute. 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