Dr Aisha Abdullahi, the Co-Chair of YIAGA Africa’s ‘Watching The Vote’, Osun Election Observation Mission, said this in Osogbo, the state capital.
Clement Adeyi, Osogbo
Election monitoring group YIAGA Africa says that the votes cast during last Saturday’s Osun governorship election, as officially announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), is consistent with its observation.
Dr Aisha Abdullahi, the Co-Chair of YIAGA Africa’s ‘Watching The Vote’, Osun Election Observation Mission, said this in Osogbo, the state capital.
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Watching The Vote (WTV), according to Abdullahi, is an initiative to monitor the credibility of elections across the country, using its Parallel Vote Tabulation (PVT) Method.
She said that the PVT produced an estimated range based on the untainted polling unit results collected from a representative statistical sample of polling units. She also disclosed that the range was calculated using long established statistical formula.
”However, because the PVT is based on the untainted results from polling units, the official results must fall within the PVT’s estimated range for them to reflect the ballots cast at polling unit,” Abdullahi said.
“Thus, if the official results fall within the PVT’s estimated ranges, then the official results accurately reflect the ballots cast at polling units, but if the official results fall outside the PVT’s estimated ranges, then the official results were changed,” she explained.
YIAGA Africa deployed 500 stationary observers in pairs in a representative statistical sample of 250 polling units and 31 mobile observers located in all 30 local government areas of the state.
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The WTV result statement is based on reports from 247 of 250 which is 99 percent sampled polling units.
Abdullahi said that the rejected ballots fell outside YIAGA AFRICA’s range of 4.1 percent to 5.3 percent, but given the rerun to be held at cancelled polling units and the closeness of the election, it likely did not affect the overall outcome.
According to the observer, the counting process at polling units was transparent and included representatives from the political parties that received the most votes.
Abdullahi added that at 98 percent of polling units, the polling officials showed how every ballot paper was marked to everyone present.
She added that during counting in 96 percent of polling units, there were no recorded incidents of intimidation or harassment against polling officer. She said that by 4:00 p.m. counting of gubernatorial ballot papers had been completed in 78 percent of polling units and at 99 percent of polling units APC, PDP and party agents countersigned the result forms.
On average, 12 polling agents were present at the observed LGA collation centres during the collation process, and they countersigned the results.
In all 30 collation centres, no party agents disagreed with the results declared, she said.