By Tobias Lengnan Dapam
Leading election observer in Nigeria, Yiaga Africa, has called for strict adherence to the provisions of the 2022 Electoral Act and INEC regulations and guidelines on the collation of results.
“As provided in Section 64 of the Act, collation officers and returning officers are required to compare the number of accredited voters and election results recorded on the hardcopy result sheet and scanned images on the BVAS.”
Dr. Hussaini Abdu, Chair, Watching The Vote Working Group Yiaga Africa, stated this on Sunday in a preliminary statement in Abuja.
He said, Yiaga Africa calls on INEC and security to ensure proper security for citizens especially the polling officials and collation officials especially as results collation progresses and as INEC commences the announcement of results to ensure that no life is further lost in these elections.
“Yiaga Africa reminds all Nigerians that the process is not yet over. They should remain peaceful while waiting on INEC to announce the official results and refrain from any acts that could incite violence.
“Political leaders should urge their supporters in particular to calmly await the official results and take appropriate actions against any party members who engage in violence or incitement to violence.
“The Watching The Vote is “Driven by Data – For All Nigerians – Beholden to None!” Yiaga Africa continues to receive reports from its observers and monitor the process, including deploying observers to all State Collation Centres. Yiaga Africa will issue additional updates as appropriate and will convene a press conference following INEC’s announcement of the official results to release its own estimates. If the announced results reflect the ballots cast at polling units, then we will confirm the outcome. If the announced results have been manipulated and do not match the results posted at polling units, then Yiaga Africa will expose this.”
Speaking further, he said Yiaga Africa calls on the commission to provide clear communication on locations where the election did not hold and ensure the process is concluded in those location before returns are made.
“INEC should be transparent and communicate the challenges faced during the deployment of the IReV.
“INEC should publicly make available all BVAS accreditation data by polling unit, including the number of voters accredited by finger vs facial recognition.
“Protect the transparency of the result collation process by ensuring accredited observers and party agents are granted access to the collation centres.”
