WorldStage\u2013 A civil society organisation, Yiaga Africa, has expressed concern over widespread allegations of vote buying in the ongoing Ekiti State governorship election, even as it commended the significant improvement in election logistics and the generally peaceful conduct of the exercise.<\/p>\n
Speaking with journalists on Saturday, during the election, Yiaga Africa\u2019s Executive Director, Samson Itodo, said the organisation\u2019s observation showed marked progress in the deployment of election materials and personnel compared to the 2022 governorship election.<\/p>\n
According to him, by 7:30 a.m. in the 2022 election, only 27 per cent of polling units had commenced operations. However, in the current election, over 68 per cent of polling units had opened by the same time, while 99 per cent had commenced voting and accreditation by 10:30 a.m.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom Yiaga Africa\u2019s perspective, there has been a remarkable improvement in logistics. In 2022, by 7:30 a.m., only 27 per cent of polling units had opened, but this time over 68 per cent had commenced operations. By 10:30 a.m., 99 per cent of polling units had recorded commencement. So far, logistics have been impressive and represent a significant improvement,\u201d Itodo said.<\/p>\n
Despite the positive assessment of logistics, Itodo identified vote buying as the organisation\u2019s biggest concern.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe biggest worry, which we had predicted before the election, is vote buying. At this moment, it is still premature to determine whether the turnout being witnessed is a result of voters\u2019 free choice or has been influenced by inducements. However, the level of vote buying observed during this election is deeply troubling,\u201d he stated.<\/p>\n
He described the development as a missed opportunity for stakeholders who had pledged to curb electoral malpractice and strengthen the integrity of the electoral process.<\/p>\n
On the overall conduct of the election, Itodo said the atmosphere remained largely peaceful, although some incidents of violence were recorded in a few areas.<\/p>\n
At the moment, I am observing the use of the e-EC8A at a polling unit. We want to see how the BVAS functions in transmitting results electronically. Transparency in result management is critical, and we expect INEC to uphold this principle throughout the process,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He maintained that, despite the challenges recorded, the election remained on course and stakeholders should focus on ensuring transparency and credibility during the collation and declaration of results.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
WorldStage\u2013 A civil society organisation, Yiaga Africa, has expressed concern over widespread allegations of vote buying in the ongoing Ekiti State governorship election, even as it commended the significant improvement in election logistics and the generally peaceful conduct of the exercise. Speaking with journalists on Saturday, during the election, Yiaga Africa\u2019s Executive Director, Samson Itodo, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14843,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14842","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14842","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14842"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14842\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14844,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14842\/revisions\/14844"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14843"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14842"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14842"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14842"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}