It wondered while accredited observers and party agents were being denied access to the collation centres in most parts of the country, warning that it would undermine the integrity of the process.
Yiaga Africa has tasked the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to ensure that the result collation process was transparent.
It wondered while accredited observers and party agents were being denied access to the collation centres in most parts of the country, warning that it would undermine the integrity of the process.
"If INEC’s results fall within Yiaga Africa’s estimated ranges, then the public, political parties and candidates should have confidence the official results reflect the ballots cast at the polling units."
Yiaga stated this in its Watching The Vote (WTV)’s Situational Preliminary Press Statement on Saturday’s Presidential Election jointly signed by Hussaini Abdu, chairman of WTV Working Group and Samson Itodo, Executive Director.
Expressing concerns on the reason behind the delay in uploading results sheets from polling units across the country, Yiaga Africa, asked INEC to communicate clearly on locations where the General Election did not hold and ensure the process was concluded before returns were made.
The Civil Society group, stated, “Yiaga Africa expressed concerns about the unexplained delay in uploading polling unit results for the presidential election on the INEC Election Results Viewing Portal (IReV). As of 10pm on election day, results for the presidential election were not uploaded on the INEC portal after voting and counting ended in several polling units.
“At 9am on Feb. 26, INEC uploaded only 25,503 results for the presidential election on the INEC portal. The delay in uploading the results undermines public confidence in the results transmission process as it deviates from the elections guidelines and fails to meet citizens’ expectations."
It warned that the failure of the IReV system would undermine public confidence in the process, as the system according to its avowed promise was intended to enhance transparency of the election.
The group asked INEC to make publicly available all the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS ) accreditation data by polling unit, including the number of voters accredited by finger and facial recognition.
He called on INEC to protect the transparency of the result collation process by ensuring accredited observers and party agents were granted access to the collation centres.
Mr Abdu called on INEC to strictly adhere to the provisions of the 2022 Electoral Act and INEC regulations and guidelines on collating results.
“As Section 64 of the Act provides, collation officers and returning officers must compare the number of accredited voters and election results recorded on the hardcopy result sheet and scanned images on the BVAS.
“Yiaga Africa calls on INEC and security to ensure proper security for citizens, especially the polling officials and collation officials as results collation progresses as INEC commences the announcement of results to ensure that no life is further lost this election,” he said.
Mr Abdu said Yiaga Africa deployed 3,836 observers nationwide, including 3,014 parallel vote tabulation (PVT) observers for the General Elections.
He said the PVT methodology was also deployed to enable Yiaga Africa to independently assess the quality of the process and verify the accuracy of the official presidential election results announced by INEC.
“At this time, Yiaga Africa can provide preliminary statistically accurate data on the conduct of the election as of Feb.25 – from the opening of polling units through accreditation, voting and counting until the posting of results.
“If INEC’s results fall within Yiaga Africa’s estimated ranges, then the public, political parties and candidates should have confidence the official results reflect the ballots cast at the polling units.
“However, if the official results are manipulated at any point in the process, we will be able to expose it, although only INEC has the legal mandate to announce the election results,” he said.