Yiaga Africa, a citizen-led movement under the Watching The Vote (WTV) Working Group, and Justice Development and Peace Centre (JDPC) of the Catholic Archdiocese of Benin City, have again called for the review of the just concluded Edo governorship election, saying several unwholesome acts undermined the integrity of the election.
Speaking in Benin on the post-election statement on the September 21 Edo governorship election entitled, ‘Edo State governorship election fails the integrity test/standards’, Dr. Aisha Abdullahi and Samson Itodo, Chair of the 2024 Edo Election and Executive Director, Yiaga Africa, respectively, expressed worry over the inconsistencies in the Edo State governorship election results.
The duo maintained that there is an urgent need for political actors to change their attitude towards politics as well as stressed the need for fundamental electoral reform to restore public confidence in the electoral process, reports Daily Independent.
Aisha Abdullahi of Yiaga Africa identified a lack of transparency in the results collation process, adding that the development led to the manipulation of results.
“While key processes such as accreditation, voting, counting and recording of results at the polling unit substantially complied with procedures, the results collation process was compromised by the actions of some biased INEC officials in connivance with other actors. This manipulation severely undermines the overall integrity of the election,” Aisha said.
On his part, Rev. Fr. Benedict Onwugbenu, Director of JDPC for the Benin Archdiocese, called on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to go back and review the Edo governorship election.
JDPC, which stands for Justice, Development, and Peace Commission, is a Catholic organisation dedicated to promoting social justice, development, and peace.
On alleged results manipulation incidents, Yiaga Africa also stated in its report thus, “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”.
The citizen-led movement under the Watching The Vote (WTV) Working Group further analysed the inconsistencies in the officially announced results.
According to the group, “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 also stated that the All Progressives Congress (APC), according to INEC, received 51.1% of the votes, the Peoples 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 fail 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.
“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 also noted 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.
On the turnout estimates, the reports stated, “INEC’s turnout and rejected ballots for the 18 LGAs released are consistent with Yiaga Africa WTV PRVT estimates. Yiaga Africa is able to estimate that turnout is between 20.9% and 24.1% (22.5% = 1.6%), while INEC’s official result is 22.4%. Similarly, Yiaga Africa estimates for rejected ballots are between 2.2% and 3.2%.”
