Why Edo governorship election fails integrity test – Yiaga Africa

A Civil Society group, Yiaga Africa, on Monday, expressed disappointment over the conduct of last weekend’s governorship election in Edo State.

The National Electoral Commission (KPU) on Sunday night declared the APC candidate as the winner of the election, beating his People’s Democratic Party (PD) rival, Asue Ighodalo.

Okpebholo, 54, won 291,667 votes, beating Ighodalo who won 247,274 votes in the tight election.

Labour Party flagbearer Olumide Akpata came third with 22,763 votes.

In a statement released and signed by the Chairperson of the Edo 2024 Election Mission, Dr. Aisha Abdullahi, and its Executive Director, Samson Itodo, Yiaga Africa lamented that the election failed the integrity test with a number of incidents recorded during the exercise.

He cited a counting process that reportedly led to manipulation of election results.

The group said its conclusions were aided by the application of the Process and Results Verification for Transparency (PRVT) methodology to the election.

READ ALSO:Tinubu congratulates Edo governor-elect Okpebholo

The report reads: “Although the main processes such as accreditation, voting, vote counting, and recording of results at polling stations basically complied with procedures, the process of collecting results was disrupted by the actions of a number of KPU officials who were biased and in collaboration with other parties.

“This manipulation seriously undermines the integrity of the election as a whole.

“Yiaga Africa’s estimates are based on official results announced at polling stations, from a representative random sample of polling stations. As highlighted in our pre-election report, Yiaga Africa will consider the quality of the Election Day process in assessing whether the 2024 Edo governorship meets the electoral integrity test. In this regard, Yiaga Africa considers the integrity of accreditation, voting, counting and collation of results.

“The Election Commission consistently implemented its guidelines in managing the accreditation and voting process at a large number of polling stations. Despite some isolated incidents, Post-Election Statement on the September 2024 Edo State Governorship Election, of inadequate election materials, the BVAS machines were functioning optimally, and all voters in the queue as of 2:30 p.m. were allowed to vote, despite the late opening of the polling stations. Polling officers uploaded the polling results on IReV in a timely manner, thereby enabling citizens to access the results at the polling station level.

“However, incidents of manipulation of results and disruption during the counting of votes at the district and local government levels in Ikpoba/Okha, Etsako West, Egor and Oredo LGAs, including intimidation of KPU officials, observers and party agents, as well as the counting of results contrary to the provisions of the Electoral Act and KPU guidelines, seriously undermined the credibility of the election results.”

The post Why Edo governorship election fails integrity test – Yiaga Africa appeared first on Latest Nigeria News | Headlines from Ripples Nigeria.