The Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD-West Africa) Election Analysis Centre (EAC) has raised concerns over widespread over-voting, irregularities, and low voter turnout during the recently concluded Edo State off-cycle governorship election. The election, held last Saturday, saw significant issues that have cast doubt over the integrity of parts of the electoral process.<\/p>\n
In a post-election statement presented in Abuja on Monday, Prof. Adele Jinadu, Chair of CDD-EAC, highlighted critical incidents that marred the election, including discrepancies in the number of accredited voters and reported votes. Despite these concerns, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared Senator Monday Okpebholo of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the winner of the governorship race. Okpebholo secured 291,667 votes, defeating his closest rival, Asue Ighodalo of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who garnered 247,274 votes. Labour Party (LP) candidate, Olumide Akpata, finished a distant third with 22,763 votes.<\/p>\n
Prof. Jinadu emphasized the need for INEC to address these irregularities, as the anomalies observed by the CDD-EAC raise questions about the credibility of the results in certain areas. “We observed several instances of over-voting, particularly in Etsako East, Weppa Registration Area, and Okpella IV, where the number of votes recorded far exceeded the number of accredited voters,” Jinadu stated.<\/p>\n
The CDD-EAC detailed several specific examples of over-voting during the election. One glaring case was observed in the Weppa Registration Area, Etsako East Local Government, where 213 voters were accredited, yet the APC recorded 352 votes and the PDP 52 votes. In another instance, at Okpella IV, Iddo Sabo Registration Area, 250 voters were accredited, but 263 votes were reported for the APC and 97 for the PDP. Similar inconsistencies were recorded in other polling units, including open space voting areas in Elite Secondary School and Imioko quarters.<\/p>\n
“At the polling unit in Okpella IV, despite the form recording 251 accredited voters, the APC polled 344 votes, and the PDP recorded 41. Similarly, in the polling unit at Shade Imioshoga III, Okpella IV, with only 240 accredited voters, the APC was reported to have 488 votes and the PDP 11,” Jinadu explained. He further added that such discrepancies undermine the confidence of voters and stakeholders in the electoral process.<\/p>\n
The performance of INEC’s Result Viewing Portal (iReV) was another area of concern. Prof. Jinadu noted that blurry results were uploaded from several polling units, notably from Ozolua Primary School II in Ovia North-East LGA, and results from various polling units in Etsako East, including the PU at Osholo Primary School. These issues led to confusion and raised further doubts about the accuracy of the election results in some areas.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe inconsistency in the reporting, particularly the mismatch between accredited voters and recorded votes, means we are unsure if it was a result of over-voting, poor data input, or a combination of other factors,\u201d Jinadu remarked.<\/p>\n
In addition to the technical and procedural issues, the CDD-EAC also reported that the election suffered from a low voter turnout. Despite being a significant political event for the state, the number of voters who participated was below expectations, raising concerns about political disengagement and voter apathy.<\/p>\n
Prof. Jinadu linked the low turnout to several factors, including pre-election violence, the lack of confidence in the electoral process, and the pervasive influence of political patronage. He emphasized that these issues need to be urgently addressed to restore public trust in democratic processes in Edo State and across Nigeria.<\/p>\n
The CDD-EAC has urged INEC to conduct a thorough investigation into the irregularities and inconsistencies in the results. The body recommends enhanced training for electoral officials to ensure the proper handling of accreditation processes and result transmission. Additionally, it called for stricter measures to prevent over-voting and improve the transparency of data input and reporting.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe lessons from the Edo governorship election should serve as a call to action for electoral reforms, particularly in ensuring the integrity of the voter accreditation process and improving the efficiency of the iReV portal,\u201d Prof. Jinadu concluded.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD-West Africa) Election Analysis Centre (EAC) has raised concerns over widespread over-voting, irregularities, and low voter turnout during the recently concluded Edo State off-cycle governorship election. The election, held last Saturday, saw significant issues that have cast doubt over the integrity of parts of the electoral process. In a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":38278,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-49507","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49507","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49507"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49507\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49508,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49507\/revisions\/49508"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38278"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}