Yiaga Africa has said the Edo State governorship election announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC) failed its integrity test.
The civil society group said it reached the conclusion after it deployed the Process and Results Verification for Transparency (PRVT) methodology to observe the Edo State governorship election, utilizing 300 stationary and 25 roving observers covering a representative sample of polling units across all 18 LGAs.
This was made known in a statement released on Monday and jointly signed by Dr. Aisha Abdullahi, Chair of the 2024 Edo Election Mission, and Samson Itodo, Executive Director.
Yiaga Africa stated that the election failed the electoral integrity test due to the lack of post election statement on the transparency in the results collation process, which according to it, led to the manipulation of results.
“While key processes such as accreditation, voting, counting, and recording of results at the polling unit substantially complied with procedures, the results collation process was compromised by the actions of some biased INEC officials in connivance with other actors.
“This manipulation severely undermines the overall integrity of the election.”