CSO to INEC: Probe electoral officers who compromised Edo guber poll

Civic Hive, a civic tech organisation, says the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) should investigate the irregularities witnessed during the September 21 governorship election in Edo state.

The organisation said it “uncovered widespread flagrant anomalies by INEC officials” in the conduct of the governorship election.

INEC had declared Monday Okpebholo, candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), as winner of the poll with 291,667 votes. Asue Ighodalo of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) came second with 247,274 votes.

The PDP and Ighodalo rejected the outcome of the election, citing electoral irregularities, and had approached the election tribunal.

Speaking at a press conference in Lagos on Thursday, Joseph Amenaghawon, team lead of Civic Hive, said the organisation analysed results uploaded on the INEC results viewing portal (IReV) and compared them with those declared by the electoral umpire.

Amenaghawon said the organisation discovered “a 20,364-vote increase in the APC’s tally as reported by INEC compared to the figures obtained from IReV”.

He said the “PDP’s vote count showed a decrease of 12,384 votes”.

Amenaghawon added that the governorship election was marred by “low voter turnout, overvoting, significant irregularities, and incongruencies in election results”.

“Civic Hive uncovered widespread flagrant anomalies by INEC officials in the conduct of the election; we discovered a number of over-voting, particularly in Etsako east and other LGAs,” Amenaghawon said.

“Particularly, in Oredo LGA, there was an unexplained increase of total valid votes by 10,498, far more than what INEC announced.

“This can also be noticed in Egor LGA, where INEC announced total valid votes of 34,022, while the collation on IREV revealed that the number is 28,084.

“Additionally, there are concerning discrepancies between the figures reported by INEC and those on the IREV platform.

“As of October 1, 2024, a thorough analysis by Civic Hive revealed a 20,364-vote increase in the APC’s tally as reported by INEC compared to the figures obtained from IREV.

“Meanwhile, the PDP’s vote count showed a decrease of 12,384 votes.

“Based on the findings, Civic Hive is calling on the INEC to immediately investigate the irregularities in the election results and activities of presiding officers in Etsako east, Oredo LGA, and across other LGAS whose activities undermine trust in the election process and credibility of election results.

“Civic Hive also recommends that INEC and the national assembly should start looking at new opportunities and lessons from other democracies on innovations and new avenues that increase how registered voters can vote on election day seamlessly without undermining the integrity and transparency of the electoral system.

“The widening gap between registered voters and accredited voters is not good. It is also expedient for INEC to start exploring innovative ways to collate and announce election results without needless bureaucracies and gaps that allow for manipulation of results.”

THE REPORT

The civic tech organisation analysed 4,466 polling units’ results uploaded on the INEC IReV portal for the governorship election.

The state has 4,519 polling units. The results uploaded on IReV represent 98.83 percent of the polling unit’s results.

In the report, the organisation stated that as of October 1, 2024, only five out of 18 LGAs in Edo have completed the upload of polling units’ results.

The five LGAs are Esan central, Owan east, Esan south-east, Esan north-east, and Igueben.

Based on the 98 percent of polling units’ results on IReV, APC recorded 271,303 votes against 291,667 votes declared by INEC, PDP recorded 259,658 votes against 247,274 declared votes, while the Labour Party (LP) recorded 18,600 votes against 22,763 declared votes.

The full report can be accessed here.