Edo poll failed expectations, results collation compromised — Situation Room

The Nigerian Civil Society Situation Room and its partners have expressed concern that the provisions of the Electoral Act 2022 and guidelines of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on the collation process were compromised in the Edo State governorship election.

Its partners include the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD-West Africa), Yiaga Africa, Kimpact Development Initiative (KDI), Nigerian Women Trust Fund (NWTF), and TAF Africa.

The body also noted that the Edo State governorship election in 2024 failed to fulfil the requirement for the conduct of credible elections, and again raises questions about election credibility in Nigeria.

“As with recent elections, INEC’s ability and willingness to conduct credible elections in Nigeria remain questionable,” Situation Room added.

Co-Convener of the Room, Mimidoo Achakpa, stated this at a press conference in Abuja, maintaining that the collation process in the election was again a weak link, as witnessed in previous elections.

Achakpa, who noted that the voting process was concluded in a relatively peaceful atmosphere, regretted that the results collation process in some LGAs was not peaceful and did not meet the electoral integrity standards for results management.

According to her, observation of the collation process shows that it was neither transparent nor open to representatives of the various candidates in some cases, insisting that it lacked transparency in the application of the provisions of the Electoral Act and INEC guidelines on over-voting and the cancellation of results from polling units.

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The Co-Convener regretted that the development raised major questions on the lack of clarity and uniformity in the application of rules on the cancellation of ballots across different LGAs, questioning reports of many collation venues that operated in darkness.

She said, “Reports from Situation Room member organisations, including from Yiaga Africa’s Process and Results Verification for Transparency (PRVT) and KDI’s Ballot Integrity Project (BIP), reveal contradictions between the final results declared and the results declared at the polling unit level in some LGAs. This occurrence was particularly observed in Egor, Ikpoba Okha, Oredo, Esan West, and Ovia South-West LGAs.”

She called on INEC to address reports of over-voting in over 370 polling units across the 18 LGAs during the election, disclosing that findings from other observation hubs, including the CDD-West Africa’s Election Analysis Centre (CDD-EAC), also revealed over-voting across the LGAs.

Achakpa urged INEC to investigate polling officials and collation officers involved in the violations of the guidelines on results collation, stressing the need for INEC to clarify the inconsistencies in some of the results from the LGAs identified in the observation reports.

She further called on the security forces to provide an update on the number of arrests made during the elections and information on the disciplinary steps taken against officers who enabled any form of election malpractice or manipulation.