2024 Edo governorship poll failed integrity test- Yiaga Africa
Yiaga Africa , a non-profit civic hub of change makers committed to the promotion of democratic governance, human rights and civic engagement, has said that the 2024 Edo governorship election failed the electoral integrity test due to the lack of transparency.
The group said the results announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission ( INEC) failed its integrity test in transparency in the results collation process, which led to the manipulation of results.
The civil society group said it reached the conclusion after it deployed the Process and Results Verification for Transparency (PRVT) methodology to observe the Edo State governorship election, utilizing 300 stationary and 25 roving observers covering a representative sample of polling units across all 18 LGAs.
It said in a statement on Monday by signed Dr. Aisha Abdullahi, Chair of the 2024 Edo Election Mission, and Samson Itodo , an Executive Director, that 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 baised INEC officials in connivance with other actors.
This manipulation severely undermines the overall integrity of the election.
As Yiaga Africa stated after the 2023 general elections and the off-cycle governorship elections of Bayelsa, Imo, and Kogi states in 2023, as well as the inconsistencies in the Edo state governorship election results, especially for the
LGAs identified in the reports, it is abundantly clear that drastic steps are now needed for fundamental electoral reforms to restore public confidence in the electoral process, especially the urgent need for political actors to change their attitude towards politics.