Nigeria: How Yiaga Will Assess Ondo Poll Revealed

Yiaga Africa says it will assess the credibility of the governorship election in Ondo State, southwest Nigeria, with parallel vote tabulation (PVT) methodology.

Executive Director of Yiaga Africa, Samson Itodo, who made this known in a statement, said that the civil society organisation, through its Watching the Vote movement (WTV), would also deploy 600 stationary observers to monitor the election.

The governorship election will take place on 10 October, 2020, in 18 local government areas (LGAs).

The PVT, Development Diaries understands, is an advanced election observation methodology that employs statistical principles and information technology in providing timely information on conduct of elections.

Itodo said in a statement that the process would monitor accreditation, voting, and counting, and it will independently verify the official governorship results as announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

‘For the 2020 Ondo State governorship election, Yiaga Africa’s Watching The Vote (WTV) will employ the Parallel Vote Tabulation (PVT) methodology on election day and will deploy 600 stationary observers in pairs to a representative statistical sample of 300 polling units and 28 roving observers, 18 Collation Center observers in each of the 18 LGAs of Ondo State’, the statement read.

‘The deployment strategy will enable Yiaga Africa to provide timely and accurate information on the conduct of accreditation, voting and counting as well as to independently verify the official results for the gubernatorial election as announced by INEC’.

He also said, ‘With the results assembled from the sampled polling units, a citizen observer group can release projected estimates and verify the accuracy of results declared by the election management body.

‘Using this methodology, observer reports are sent via SMS to a central database which enables WTV to analyse and share timely findings on the conduct of the election in near real-time’.

According to him, if INEC’s official results fall within Yiaga Africa’s estimated range, then the public, political parties and candidates would have confidence that the official results reflected the ballots cast at polling units.

The Yiaga director, however, said that if the announced results have been manipulated and do not match the polling units’ results, Yiaga Africa would expose the manipulation.

Governor Rotimi Akeredolu of All Progressives Congress (APC) and candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Eyitayo Jegede, are the front runners in the race for the most powerful office in the Sunshine State.

Source: Yiaga Africa

Photo source: Yiaga Africa

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