Ms Cynthia Mbamalu, Director of Programmes, Yiaga Africa, has commended Anambra people for upholding peace before, during, and after the election across the state.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports on Monday in Awka that Mbamalu in an interview with newsmen also commended the security agents for their professionalism and coordination during the election process.
She however noted that less than half of the polling units were operational at the official start time which indicates that INEC needed to continue to address the persistent logistics bottlenecks that had plagued Nigeria’s elections.
Mbamalu also condemned the observed incidents of vote-buying, which she said characterised the election describing it as a major threat to the credibility of the electoral process.
“This practice promotes electoral corruption, erodes equality in election competition, and undermines the legitimacy of electoral victory.
“Yiaga Africa calls on political parties to refrain from the culture of commercialisation of elections in Nigeria and invest rather in practices that enhance trust in the elections.
“In addition, Yiaga Africa emphasises the urgent need for a national conversation on the deepening crisis of low voter turnout.
“The persistent decline in turnout, particularly among youths, raises critical questions about democratic legitimacy and the health of Nigeria’s democracy,” she said.
The Yiaga director of programmes said that the Anambra Election Observation Hub comprised the Yiaga Africa, The Kukah Centre, International Press Centre (IPC), and the Centre for Media and Society (CEMESO).
She said that others are the Nigeria Women Trust Fund (NWTF), ElectHER, and TAF Africa, adding that the hub jointly deployed 711 citizen observers across the 21 local government areas (LGAs) of Anambra.
Mbamalu said that the official results aligned with Process and Results Verification for Transparency (PRVT) formerly called Parallel Vote Tabulation (PVT) methodology in observing the Anambra governorship election.
She said that through the Watching The Vote (WTV), the hub evolved the deployment of 250 stationary observers to a representative randomly selected sample of 250 polling units across the 21 LGAs.
“With this methodology, we were able to provide the timeliest and accurate information on the governorship election and independently verified if the official results announced by INEC were a reflection of the votes cast at the polling units.
“Turnout INEC’s figures for turnout and rejected ballots for the 21 LGAs are consistent with Yiaga Africa WTV/PRVT estimates.
“Yiaga Africa is able to estimate that turnout is between 20.3 per cent and 22.9 per cent, while INEC’s official result is 21.35 per cent.
“Similarly, Yiaga Africa estimates that the percentage of rejected ballots is 1.6 per cent and 2.2 per cent.
“The official result for rejected ballots is 1.89 per cent lending credence to the official figures announced by INEC,” Mbamalu said.
She said that the PRVT findings revealed that the results announced by INEC for all the 21 LGAs were consistent with the PRVT estimates for the governorship election in Anambra.
She commended Dr Asmau Maikudi, Chairman of the 2025 Anambra Election Mission, and Executive Director, Yiaga Africa, Samson Itodo for their efforts during the election.
