Yiaga Africa, a civil society organisation (CSO), says the results of the presidential election from Imo and Anambra are inconsistent with what its observers deployed to the states recorded.
In a statement on Wednesday, the organisation said the results announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) were manipulated.
“The state-level presidential results for Imo and Rivers are inconsistent with the Yiaga Africa WTV projections for both states,” the statement reads.
“For Rivers, INEC announced 231,591 votes for APC or 44.2 percent; 175,071 for LP or 33.4 percent; and 88,468 for PDP or 16.9 percent.
“This is in sharp contrast to the Yiaga Africa WTV estimates for Rivers which are: APC 21.7 percent ±5.0 percent; for LP 50.8 percent ±10.6 percent; and PDP 22.2 percent ±6.5 percent.
“For Imo, INEC announced 66,406 for APC or 14.2 percent; 360,495 for LP or 77.1 percent; and 30,234; for PDP or 6.5 percent.
“Again, this is at variance with the Yiaga Africa WTV estimates for Imo which are: APC 5.1 ±2.3 percent; LP 88.1 percent ±3.8 percent; and PDP 5.7 percent ±2.3 percent.”
The organisation said that based on reports from 97 percent of its sampled polling units, the All Progressives Congress (APC) had higher votes.
“Based on reports from 97 percent (1,453 of 1507) of sampled polling units, Yiaga Africa’s statistical analysis shows that the All Progressives Congress (APC) should receive between 34.4 percent and 37.4 percent of the vote, Labour Party (LP) should receive between 24.2 percent and 28.4 percent of the votes, the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) should receive between 4.6 percent and 6.4 percent of the vote, People’s Democratic Party (PDP) should receive between 28.3 percent and 31.1 percent of the vote, while no other political party should receive more than 0.3% of the vote.”
It recommended that INEC should among other things, clarify the inconsistencies in some of the results, especially from Rivers and Imo states; extend voting hours to 5 pm in subsequent elections; as well as sustain the uploads of polling unit results form EC 8A on its IReV portal.,
In the course of the election, Yiaga Africa expressed concerns about the delay in uploading polling unit results for the presidential election on the INEC Election Results Viewing Portal (IReV). As of today, only 73% of the polling unit-level results have been uploaded. Undoubtedly, the delay in uploading the polling unit-level results cast doubts on the credibility of the results management process resulting in broken public trust in electoral technology. Yiaga Africa notes that the delayed upload of the results on the IReV is a flagrant disregard of INEC’s Regulations and Guidelines, and it failed to meet citizens’ expectations.
Once again, the 2023 Presidential and National Assembly elections were a missed opportunity. Factors like serious logistical and technological shortcomings, non-compliance with electoral guidelines, lack of transparency, and manipulation of election results undermine public confidence in INEC and the overall outcome of the elections. Yiaga Africa notes that the integrity of electoral outcomes are influenced by processes and procedures. Therefore, a compromised process will produce questionable outcomes.
Yiaga Africa condemns the cases of violence and disruption of the voting and results collation process by thugs and hoodlums, especially the violence targeted at National Youth Service Corp (NYSC) members and INEC staff. These cases of violence undermine Nigeria’s electoral reform project.
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