Yiaga Africa has said that the official results of the June 20 Ekiti Governorship Election announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) are consistent with its Process and Results Verification for Transparency (PRVT) estimates.
The civil society organisation made this known in its post-election statement presented on Sunday in Ado-Ekiti by Dr Aisha Abdullahi, Chair of the 2026 Ekiti Election Observation Mission.
According to Yiaga Africa, the election recorded significant improvements in election-day administration, including early deployment of officials and materials, timely commencement of accreditation and voting, and the generally peaceful conduct of the process across the state.
The group also commended security agencies, particularly the Nigeria Police Force, for maintaining professionalism throughout the election, noting that reports from its 250 stationary and 22 mobile observers showed a largely orderly process.
Yiaga Africa, however, expressed concern over widespread reports of vote buying and voter inducement, describing them as serious threats to the integrity of elections and the ability of voters to freely exercise their democratic rights.
It also identified gaps in results management, voter turnout computation and inconsistencies in sensitive election materials, including ballot papers and result sheets, which it said did not fully align with the final list of political parties cleared to participate in the election.
On the deployment of technology, the organisation reported that the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) functioned properly in 87 per cent of observed polling units, while malfunctions recorded in some locations were subsequently resolved by election officials.
Yiaga Africa further stated that its statistical analysis showed that the vote shares announced by INEC for major political parties fell within its projected ranges, indicating that the official results reflected ballots counted at polling units and were not significantly altered during collation.
The organisation, however, noted a discrepancy in voter turnout figures, observing that INEC used a registered voter figure of 988,251 for turnout computation instead of the updated 2026 register of 1,059,360 voters, resulting in a slight variance between its estimate and the commission’s official turnout figure.
Yiaga Africa urged INEC to clarify the turnout discrepancy, strengthen quality assurance in the production of sensitive election materials and improve implementation of electoral guidelines, while calling on security agencies to intensify efforts against vote buying and electoral intimidation ahead of future elections and the 2027 General Election.(NAN)
