Yiaga Africa, one of the accredited observers of the Edo State governorship election on Saturday, 21 September, said the exercise failed its integrity test.
Yiaga stated this in a report released on Monday and shared with newsmen in Benin.
The report was jointly signed by Dr. Aisha Abdullahi, Yiaga’s Africa Chairperson of the 2024 Edo Election Mission, and Executive Director of the organization, Samson Itodo.
According to Yiaga Africa, its findings showed that votes were altered in some places during collation and that 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 result manipulation and disruptions during ward and local government collation in Ikpoba/Okha, Etsako West, Egor and Oredo LGAs. There is also intimidation of INEC officials, observers, and party agents.
“The election witnessed the collation of results, contrary to the provisions of the Electoral Act and INEC guidelines, severely undermine the credibility of the election results and inconsistencies in the officially announced results.”
Yiaga Africa said that based on reports obtained from the sampled polling units, it could project expected vote shares for each party within a narrow margin.
The report added that Yiaga Africa can only verify the election outcome if it falls within its estimated margins. If the official results fall outside these ranges, it may indicate manipulation.
“According to INEC, the All Progressives Congress (APC) received 51.1% of the votes, the 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 during collation.
“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 criticized INEC’s inadequate planning in terms of logistics.
“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”.
Yiaga Africa also 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”.
“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.
According to the report, the BVAS machines functioned optimally as all voters in the queue by 2:30 p.m. were allowed to vote, despite the late opening of polls in some places.
“The polling officials uploaded polling unit results on the IReV promptly, making it possible for citizens to access polling unit level results.”
