Yiaga Africa) has trained its 646 observers that will monitor the 2020 governorship election in Ondo State, southwest Nigeria.
The governorship election will take place on 10 October, 2020, in 18 local government areas (LGAs).
The citizen-led movement, in a statement signed by its Executive Director, Samson Itodo, noted that the training tagged, ‘Election Day Observation Training’, was held in 47 centres spread across the 18 LGAs that make up the state.
Development Diaries learnt that 600 polling unit stationary observers, 27 LGA roving observers and 18 collation centre observers, who are all resident in Ondo State, benefited from the training.
The 18 collation centre observers will be deployed in all 18 LGAs to observe, document and report the process at the collation level.
The training, under Yiaga Africa’s Watching The Vote (WTV) efforts, exposed citizen observers to the elements of election observation and reporting, according to the statement.
Yiaga Africa citizen observers, it was learnt, were trained on the essentials of election observation beginning from understanding the election day process as provided in the Independent National Electoral Commission’s manuals and election guidelines.
‘The observers were also exposed to the guidelines and principles of election observation in line with the global principles of Global Network for Domestic Election Monitors’, the statement read.
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.
Yiaga Africa, in its first pre-Ondo State 2020 election observation report, noted allegation of threats to deploy state and non-state instruments of force in the state.
‘Given the background of pre-election violence and gangster politics, the state may witness a further decline in voter turnout during election’, the organisation noted.
‘This is exacerbated by the failure of security agencies to curb acts of lawlessness and impunity perpetrated by armed political thugs and political actors.
‘Low voter turnout may further enhance chances for electoral manipulation in the strongholds of the major political parties particularly in the rural areas where election rigging usually takes place’.
The civil society organisation urged the federal and state government to desist from partisan use of the police and other security outfits to manipulate the electoral process.
The organisation also urged citizens to work with security agencies by reporting incidents or threats of violence, or perpetrators of violence.
Source: Yiaga Africa
Photo source: Yiaga Africa
