An election monitoring group, Yiaga Africa, has described last Saturday’s governorship election in Ekiti state as transparent and fair enough.
The group said,based on reports from 98% (245 of 250) of sampled polling units, statistical analysis shows that the All Progressives Congress (APC) received between 50.5% and 54.1% of the vote, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) received between 19.0% and 22.4% of the vote, Social Democratic Party (PDP) received between 20.4% and 24.6% of the vote, while no other political party received more than 5.5% of the vote.
It added that the PVT statistical analysis was based on the number of registered voters and not the number of PVCs collected.
Summarising its findings, the group said, INEC official results for the 2022 Ekiti state governorship election is consistent with watching the votes estimate especially within the Yiaga Africa’s WTV estimated range.
The group noted that 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.
“Because the official results fall within the estimated ranges, candidates, parties, and voters should have confidence the official results for the Ekiti 2022 gubernatorial election reflect the ballots cast at polling units on Saturday, June 18.
“It is important to highlight that the counting process at polling units was transparent and included representatives from the four political parties that received the most votes.
“At 100% of polling units, an APC party agent signed the EC.8A results form, at 99% of polling units a PDP party agent signed the EC.8A results form, at 97% of polling units an SDP party agent signed the EC.8A results form.
“At 99% of polling units, APC party agents were given a copy of the EC.8A results form. At 97% of polling units, PDP polling agents were given a copy of the EC.8A results form. At 96% of polling units, SDP party agents were given a copy of the EC.8A results form.At 96% of polling units, the polling official posted the official polling unit results for the public to see,”the group noted in its post mortem report.
It also observed that INEC’s turnout and rejected ballots for the 16 LGA released are consistent with Yiaga Africa WTV PVT estimates.
The group said:”We were able to estimate that turnout is between 35.7% and 38.7% (37.2% ± 1.5%), while INEC’s official result is 36.47%. Similarly, our estimated rejected ballots are between 1.8% and 2.6% (2.2% ± 0.4%) while INEC’s official result is 2.46%.
“We commend the people of Ekiti for their resilience and commitment to a non-violent election. We encourage the voters to sustain their participation in the electoral process beyond the elections by holding political parties and candidates accountable for their campaign promises.
“We encourage INEC to uphold the principles of transparency by publishing the total number of PVCs collected in Ekiti on its website. In addition, we call 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”.
