TheCable

YIAGA Africa, a civil society organisation (CSO), has commended the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for the “transparent” conduct of the July 16 governorship election in Osun state.

Ademola Adeleke, candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), was declared the winner of the election having secured 403,371 votes to defeat Gboyega Oyetola, incumbent governor of the state, who polled 375,027 votes on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

In a process and results verification report released on Sunday, YIAGA also lauded the security agencies for ensuring that the people of Osun were able to exercise their franchise “in a secure environment”.

It noted that INEC recorded “significant improvement in logistics management” and that “the personnel and essential materials, such as the Voter Register, BVAS, voting cubicles and ballot boxes, were deployed early in most of the polling units”.

It also said INEC’s official announcement on the votes cast for the election is overall consistent with YIAGA Africa #WatchingTheVote (WTV) estimated range.

“INEC’s official announcement on the votes cast for the 2022 Osun state gubernatorial election is overall consistent with the Yiaga Africa WTV estimated range  (specifically, it falls within the Yiaga Africa’s WTV estimated range). Had the official results been changed at the ward, LGA or state collation centres, the official results would not have fallen within the Yiaga Africa WTV estimated ranges,” the statement reads.

“Because the official results fall within the estimated ranges, candidates, parties, and voters should have confidence the official results for the Osun 2022 gubernatorial election reflect the ballots cast at polling units on Saturday, July 16, 2022.”

The organisation, however, condemned “isolated cases” of violence and disruptions by suspected thugs and voter inducement.

“Although these cases are isolated, they undermine Nigeria’s electoral reform project,” it said.

“Yiaga Africa calls for a thorough investigation into these cases of attack and intimidation against polling officials.

“Yiaga Africa calls on INEC to audit the newly created polling units and ensure equitable distribution of voters to the polling units. In cases where voters have been allotted to new polling units, INEC should update the voter records on its website and communicate the changes to prevent voter disenfranchisement.”

YIAGA Africa said the process and results verification statement signed by Samson Itodo and Hussain Abdu, its executive director and board chair, respectively, is based on reports from 247 to 250 polling units it sampled.