Anambra Guber: Why We Are Confident With INEC Results – Yiaga Africa

Yiaga Africa has said it had confidence with results announced so far by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) because it reflected the voting pattern during the November 6 Anambra gubernatorial election.

Samson Itodo, Executive Director, Yiaga Africa, made this known at a press conference on the preliminary statement on the Anambra election.

Itodo stressed that Yiaga Africa deployed 500 observers and 27 mobile observers to monitor the election adding that INEC had so far released results for 20 Local Government Areas (LGAs), remaining Ihiala LGA that was yet to hold.

He said that Yiaga Africa, through the Watching The Vote citizens movement, deployed the Parallel Vote Tabulation (PVT) methodology to verify the official governorship results as announced by INEC.

PVT is an advanced election observation methodology that employs well-established statistical principles and sophisticated information technologies in elections.

This provides timely and accurate information on the conduct of accreditation, voting and counting, and it independently verifies the official results as announced by the INEC.

Yiaga Africa’s PVT can provide independent verification of the results announced thus far reflecting the ballots cast.

“The release of these figures speaks only to the accuracy of the tabulation process for votes cast on Nov. 6 2021 and not the overall credibility of the Anambra gubernatorial election.

“As noted, the election is not yet over. Yiaga Africa will continue observing the voting and counting processes as well as the results announcement for Ihiala by deploying its observers to the sampled polling units of the LGA on Tuesday.’’

According to Itodo, of sampled polling units that opened Saturday, Yiaga Africa received reports from 96 per cent of its field observers.

He said that based on those reports, Yiaga Africa’s statistical analysis showed that for the votes cast, All Progressives Congress (APC) should receive between 16.6 per cent and 21.1 per cent of the vote.

He said that the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) should receive between 41.0 per cent and 47.6 per cent of the vote while the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) should receive between 19.2 per cent and 24.2 per cent of the votes.

He added that the Young Progressive Party (YPP) should receive between 6.7 per cent and 11.1 per cent of the vote while no other political party should receive more than two per cent of the vote.

“Had the official results been changed at the ward, LGA or state collation centres, the official results would not have fallen within the Yiaga Africa WTV estimated ranges.

“Because the official results fall within the estimated ranges, governorship contestants, parties, and voters should have confidence that the official results for the 20 LGAs as announced by INEC reflect the ballots cast at polling units on Saturday, Nov. 6,’’ he said.

Itodo said that it was important to highlight that the counting process at polling units was transparent and included representatives from the four political parties that received the most votes.

He said that at 86 per cent of polling units, an APC party agent signed the EC.8A results in form, while at 98 per cent of polling units an APGA party agent signed the EC.8A result form.

He added that at 96 per cent of polling units a PDP party agent signed the EC.8A result form, and at 79 per cent of polling units, a YPP party agent signed the EC.8A results form.

On turnout for the election, he said that INEC’s turnout and rejected ballots for the 20 LGA released were also consistent with Yiaga Africa WTV PVT estimates, adding that Yiaga Africa was able to estimate that turnout was between 10.2 per cent and 12.8 per cent (11.5% ± 1.3%) while INEC’s official result was 10.75 per cent.

He said that similarly, Yiaga Africa estimated rejected ballots are between 2.5 per cent and 3.7 per cent (3.1% ± 0.6%) while INEC’s official result was 3.3