Lagos State Independent Electoral Commission (LASIEC) has commenced a rigorous post-election audit of the 2025 Local Government and Local Council Development Area (LCDA) polls, with a vow to institutionalise lessons from the exercise to strengthen grassroots democracy.

Speaking at the opening of a two-day retreat in Ikeja yesterday, the Chairman of the Commission, Justice Bola Okikiolu-Ighile (rtd), described the gathering as a deliberate and forward-looking exercise aimed at evaluating the Commission’s performance and identifying systemic gaps.

Themed: ‘Execution to Evaluation: Building a More Resilient Electoral Process for Lagos State’, the retreat comes six months after the July 2025 polls.

Addressing commissioners and electoral officers, Okikiolu-Ighile noted that while the elections were adjudged free and fair by international and domestic observers, the electoral body must avoid the trap of complacency.

She acknowledged that the 2025 cycle was not without its administrative hiccups and politically motivated sentiments, but maintained that the commission had demonstrated impartiality and resilience in protecting the voters’ mandate.

Providing a statistical backdrop to the 2025 exercise, the Commissioner for Training, Oladele Adekanye, revealed a significant uptick in voter engagement compared to previous cycles.

According to him, the 2025 elections recorded a 24 per cent voter turnout, a notable leap from the 10 to 11 per cent recorded in previous local government polls in the state.