The 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, vowing to institutionalise lessons learnt from the exercise to strengthen grassroots democracy.

Speaking at the opening of a two-day retreat at Dover Hotels, Ikeja, on Tuesday, 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.

The retreat, themed ‘Execution to Evaluation: Building a More Resilient Electoral Process for Lagos State’, comes six months after the July 2025 polls, which were contested under the spotlight of high public expectation and political scrutiny.

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

“A resilient electoral process is not one that simply survives challenges, but one that learns from them, adapts and emerges stronger. We must be courageous enough to admit our shortcomings and make up to institutionalise lessons learnt,” she said.

The Chairman 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 mandate of the voters.

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 Adekanye, 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.

“In relative terms, we had an improvement on the exercise. We are here to deliberate on how to build upon this momentum,” Adekanye noted.

Looking ahead, the Commission signalled its intention to pivot towards greater technological integration and human capacity development. Justice Okikiolu-Ighile emphasised that the future of Lagos elections would be shaped by rising public scrutiny and evolving security concerns.

To remain contemporary and relevant, the Chairman pledged that LASIEC would focus on leveraging technology to meet voters’ expectations, strengthening manpower through continuous training and a conducive work environment, and reinforcing internal control processes to ensure transparency and neutrality.