The Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) has raised concerns over website accessibility and technical anomalies affecting some political parties participating in the Osun State governorship election scheduled for Saturday, August 15, 2026.
CITAD disclosed this in a preliminary report from its digital rights, data and privacy monitoring initiative, PAWSOM-Monitor, an AI-based platform deployed to assess the digital environment surrounding the election.
According to the organisation, the monitoring exercise is designed to track potential digital rights violations, website accessibility challenges and data and privacy concerns involving political parties, candidates and their digital platforms.
CITAD said the initiative is also intended to assess whether participating political parties and candidates have equal opportunities to use digital platforms for political communication before, during and after the election.
The organisation said the Osun exercise is a pilot project, with plans to deploy PAWSOM-Monitor during the 2027 general elections.
31,763 Website Checks Conducted
CITAD said that between August 8 and 9, 2026, PAWSOM-Monitor conducted 31,763 checks on the websites of 15 political parties participating in the Osun governorship election.
It said 25,287 checks were successful, while 6,476 failed for technical reasons, with the overall risk level assessed at 41 out of 100, described as moderate.
The organisation added that a further 21,644 checks were conducted on August 12 across the same 15 political parties.
According to the preliminary assessment, 12 political party websites were confirmed to be operational, while three were identified as operational with anomalies or facing accessibility concerns.
APM Website Records Accessibility Problem
CITAD said the most significant observation involved the website of the Allied Peoples Movement (APM).
It explained that all three verification attempts conducted by PAWSOM-Monitor returned an “ISP_block_detected” error, with the website recording no successful connection during the monitoring period.
However, CITAD cautioned against interpreting the finding as evidence that the APM website was deliberately blocked or censored.
“The finding only indicates that the website was unreachable from the monitoring vantage point and requires independent verification,” the organisation said.
PRP, ADP Websites Show Anomalies
The Peoples Redemption Party (PRP) website was also identified as having technical anomalies.
CITAD said the website was accessible during all three final verification attempts, including an independent verification conducted by its monitors. However, it was classified as “Operational With Anomalies” and recommended for further technical review.
Similarly, the Action Democratic Party (ADP) website was accessible during all three final checks but recorded DNS differences during two attempts.
The website was consequently classified as “Operational With Anomalies” and flagged for further investigation.
CITAD also identified the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) as having websites that were operational but showed anomalies.
CITAD Urges Caution Over Censorship Claims
The organisation stressed that the preliminary findings should not be interpreted as confirmed evidence of censorship or deliberate digital rights violations.
It said the observed website unavailability, degraded performance and DNS anomalies could have resulted from several factors, including Internet Service Provider restrictions, hosting problems, domain or DNS configuration issues, or other technical difficulties.
“PAWSOM-Monitor therefore does not classify the observations as confirmed cases of censorship or deliberate digital-rights violations at this stage,” CITAD said.
The organisation explained that its methodology requires human review and additional verification before any disruption can be attributed to an external actor.
Parties Urged to Conduct Immediate Technical Reviews
CITAD advised affected political parties, particularly APM, PRP and ADP, to conduct immediate technical reviews of their websites and domain and DNS configurations.
It also urged the parties to engage their hosting providers, domain registrars and Internet Service Providers where necessary to investigate the reported accessibility and DNS anomalies.
The organisation recommended that affected websites undergo independent verification before conclusions are drawn regarding possible external interference.
CITAD said it would continue its monitoring activities and publish daily updates on developments in the digital environment surrounding the Osun governorship election.
The preliminary report was signed by YZ Ya’u, Executive Director, Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD).
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