According to the Situation Room, over-voting was reported in more than 370 polling units across all 18 Local Government Areas (LGAs) of the state.
The Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room and its accredited member organisations have raised concerns about widespread over-voting in the just concluded 2024 Edo State Governorship Election.
According to the Situation Room, over-voting was reported in more than 370 polling units across all 18 Local Government Areas (LGAs) of the state.
In a statement signed on Monday by Yunusa Z. Ya’u, Convener Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room the coalition which includes groups like the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD-West Africa), Yiaga Africa, Kimpact Development Initiative (KDI), Nigerian Women Trust Fund (NWTF), and TAF Africa, shared findings from various observation hubs deployed during the election held on September 21st, 2024.
“Over-voting was reported from more than 370 polling units across the 18 LGAs of the State by our various observers,” the Situation Room noted.
The coalition also criticised the collation process, pointing to irregularities that compromised transparency and integrity.
“Our observation of the collation process shows that it was not transparent nor open to representatives of the various candidates in some cases,” the statement read, adding that the process violated provisions of the Electoral Act and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) guidelines.
The Situation Room expressed specific concerns over discrepancies between polling unit results and final results declared in certain LGAs, including Egor, Ikpoba Okha, Oredo, Esan West, and Ovia South-West.
Reports from Yiaga Africa’s Process and Results Verification for Transparency (PRVT) and KDI’s Ballot Integrity Project (BIP) revealed the contradictions in these areas.
They also raised questions about the application of rules concerning over-voting and the cancellation of ballots, noting inconsistencies across LGAs.
“It lacks transparency in the application of the provision of the Electoral Act and the INEC Guidelines on over-voting and cancellation of results from polling units,” the statement emphasised.
The coalition called on INEC to take immediate action to investigate the officials involved and clarify the inconsistencies.
“We call on INEC to investigate polling officials and collation officers involved in the violations of the guidelines on results collation,” the Situation Room demanded, while also urging INEC to “clarify the inconsistencies in some of the results from the LGAs identified in the observation reports.”
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