Edo governorship election failed integrity test, says observer group

Published By: Paul Dada

By Paul Dada

A foremost non-govermental organisation, Yiaga Africa, that observed the 21 September Edo State governorship election, says the exercise failed its integrity test.

Yiaga said this in a report it released on Monday and shared with P.M News. The report was jointly signed by Dr. Aisha Abdullahi
Yiaga’s Africa Chair of the 2024 Edo Election Mission, Samson Itodo who is the Executive Director of the organisation.

The organisation said its findings showed that votes were altered in some places at the level of collation. The organisation said it applied what it called the Process and Results Verification for Transparency (PRVT) methodology to observe the Edo State
governorship election.

It said: “…the incidents of results manipulation and disruptions during ward and local government collation in Ikpoba/Okha, Etsako West, Egor and Oredo LGAs, including intimidation of INEC officials, observers and party agents and the collation of results contrary to the provisions of the Electoral Act and INEC guidelines, severely undermine the credibility of the election results.
Inconsistencies in the officially announced results.  Based on reports received from the sampled polling units, Yiaga Africa can project
the expected vote shares for each party within a narrow margin. However, Yiaga Africa is only able to verify the election outcome if it falls within its estimated margins. If the official results do not fall within Yiaga Africa’s estimated ranges, then the results may have been manipulated”.

It further said: “According to INEC, the All Progressive Congress (APC) received 51.1% of the votes, People’s Democratic Party (PDP) 43.3% of the votes, and the Labor Party garnered 4.0% of the votes. Based on reports from 287 of 300 (96%) sampled polling units,
Yiaga Africa’s statistical analysis shows inconsistencies in the official results announced by INEC. For instance, the official results announced by INEC for APC in Oredo and Egor, LGAs fall outside the PRVT estimate. In Esan West LGA, the official results for PDP fall outside the PRVT estimates. Also, in Oredo LGA, the official results as announced for LP fall outside the PRVT estimates. These
inconsistencies with Yiaga Africa’s PRVT estimates indicate that the results were altered at the level of collation.

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“The disparities between the official results released by INEC and Yiaga Africa’s PRVT estimates indicate manipulation of results during the collation process. Yiaga Africa strongly condemns the actions of some biased INEC officials who altered figures during collation including the actions of some security officials who interfered with the collation process. Yiaga Africa notes that the cases of
disruption in Ikpoba/Okha, Etsako West, Egor, and Oredo LGAs in the course of collation created opportunities for election manipulation, raising significant concerns about the credibility and integrity of the results collation process”.

Yiaga Africa which said  it deployed “300 stationary and 25 roving observers, covering a representative sample of polling units across all 18 LGAs” also criticised INEC’s inadequate planning in terms of logistics.

It said: “Yiaga Africa’s election day situation analysis statement highlighted logistical challenges that led to delays in the commencement of accreditation and voting at various polling units across the state. Inadequate planning in the supply of vehicles for transporting ad hoc officials and election materials, along with the absence of accompanying security personnel, further exacerbated the delays”.

The organisation  condemned “acts of violence and disruption of voting and results collation process by political thugs and hoodlums, particularly violence directed at voters and election officials”.  It said: “These unwholesome acts undermine the integrity of
the elections. Yiaga Africa extends its sympathies to citizens and polling officials who suffered severe injuries and loss of valuable properties due to these attacks and violence. Yiaga Africa calls on security agencies to thoroughly investigate these cases of attacks and intimidation against voters and polling officials”.

However, It noted that  INEC consistently applied its guidelines in managing the accreditation and voting
process in a significant number of polling units. It said the BVAS machines functioned optimally as  all voters in the queue by 2:30pm were allowed to vote, despite the late opening of polls in some places.  It also said: “the polling officials uploaded polling unit results on the IReV in a timely manner, making it possible for citizens to access polling unit level results”.