Members of Yiaga Africa during the press conference. Photo Credit: Julian Osamoto /Radio Nigeria
Yiaga Africa, an election observer group has called on security agencies to “be vigilant and give safety to voters” in the Governorship and State Houses of Assembly elections.
The group said the March elections presented another opportunity for the Independent National Electoral Commission to improve on the logistics and technological challenges experienced during the February 25 Presidential and National Assembly elections.
Yiaga also disclosed that it would be deploying a total of 1,547 duly trained and accredited stationary and roving observers to watch the conduct of the election in 28 states.
While presenting its third Election Manipulation Risk Index (EMRI) supported by the European Union through the Democratic Governance in Nigeria (EU-SDGN), a member of the Board of Yiaga Africa, Ezenwa Nwagwu, explained that the Parallel Vote Tabulation (PVT) methodology will be deployed to observe the elections in Benue, Delta and Kano states.
He explained that “For the March 18 Governorship Election, 900 stationary observers would be deployed to a randomly selected sample of 300 polling units for each of the states and 97 roving observers in the three states”.
Also speaking director of programmes, Yiaga Africa, Cynthia Mbamalu, said one of the reasons behind the logistics challenges experienced during the Presidential election, was unavailability of cash which impacted the transportation of drivers from Registration Area Centers to polling units.
“This is despite the promises made by the Central Bank of Nigeria that it will make available all the needed cash for effective logistics deployment. Yiaga Africa is worried that, if the challenges of scarcity of cash are not addressed, the Commission may experience further logistics challenges which will no doubt impact the quality of the process.
“INEC should ensure proper and consistent communication with relevant stakeholders providing logistics support to ensure early election day deployment”
Reporting by Julian Osamoto