Yiaga Africa raises concerns over manipulation in 2024 Edo governorship election

Yiaga Africa’s report on the 2024 Edo governorship election reveals discrepancies in INEC’s results, raising concerns about electoral integrity and result manipulation.

[dropcap]Y[/dropcap]iaga Africa, a prominent election observer group, deployed its Process and Results Verification for Transparency (PRVT) methodology to monitor the 2024 Edo State governorship election on September 21.

With 300 stationary and 25 roving observers, the group assessed polling units across the state’s 18 local government areas. Yiaga Africa also monitored collation centres to ensure accurate reporting of election results.

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In a joint statement, signed by the chairman of the 2024 Edo Election Mission, Dr. Aisha Abdullahi and Executive Director, Yiaga Africa, Samson Itodo, the election faced logistical issues, including delayed accreditation due to poor transportation arrangements for officials and materials.

Despite these delays, voters present by 2:30 p.m. were allowed to vote, and polling unit results were uploaded promptly.

However, Yiaga Africa strongly condemned incidents of violence by political thugs that disrupted voting and the collation process, particularly in Ikpoba/Okha, Etsako West, Egor, and Oredo LGAs.

Yiaga Africa’s analysis of the election results showed inconsistencies with INEC’s official figures. The PRVT estimates indicated that in Oredo and Egor LGAs, results for the APC fell outside expected margins, while the PDP results in Esan West also showed discrepancies.

Yiaga Africa’s report highlights result manipulation during the collation process, undermining the integrity of the election.

The voter turnout was estimated at 22.5%, lower than in previous elections. Yiaga Africa praised those who braved the rain and voting delays to cast their votes.

Despite meeting some expectations in terms of accreditation and voting procedures, the election failed Yiaga Africa’s electoral integrity test due to the compromised collation process.

Yiaga Africa called on INEC to clarify the inconsistencies in results and urged for reforms to ensure electronic transmission of results is mandatory.

The group emphasised the need for thorough investigations into election manipulation and stronger security measures to protect the integrity of future elections.

Quadri Olaitan