Director of Programmes, Yiaga Africa, Ms Cynthia Mbamalu, has commended Anambra people for upholding peace before, during and after the election in the state.
Mbamalu, in an interview with journalists, also commended security agents for their professionalism and coordination during the election process.
She, however, noted that less than half of the polling units were operational at the official start time which indicates that the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, needs to address the persistent logistics bottlenecks that had plagued Nigeria’s elections.
Mbamalu also condemned the observed incidents of vote-buying, which she said characterised the election, describing it as a major threat to the credibility of the electoral process.
“This practice promotes electoral corruption, erodes equality in election competition and undermines the legitimacy of electoral victory.
“Yiaga Africa calls on political parties to refrain from the culture of commercialisation of elections in Nigeria and rather invest in practices that enhance trust in elections.
“In addition, Yiaga Africa emphasises the urgent need for a national conversation on the deepening crisis of low voter turnout.
“The persistent decline in turnout, particularly among youths, raises critical questions about democratic legitimacy and the health of Nigeria’s democracy”, she said.
The director of programmes said the Anambra Election Observation Hub comprised Yiaga Africa, The Kukah Centre, International Press Centre, IPC, and the Centre for Media and Society, CEMESO.
She noted that others are Nigeria Women Trust Fund, NWTF, ElectHER and TAF Africa, adding that the hub jointly deployed 711 citizen observers across the 21 local government areas.
Mbamalu said the official results align with Process and Results Verification for Transparency, PRVT, formerly called Parallel Vote Tabulation, PVT, methodology in observing the governorship election.
She said through Watching The Vote, WTV, the hub evolved the deployment of 250 stationary observers to a representative randomly selected sample of 250 polling units across the 21 councils.
“With this methodology, we were able to provide the timeliest and accurate information on the governorship election and independently verified if the official results announced by INEC were a reflection of the votes cast at the polling units.
“INEC’s figures for turnout and rejected ballots are consistent with Yiaga Africa WTV/PRVT estimates.
“Yiaga Africa is able to estimate that turnout was between 20.3 percent and 22.9 percent, while INEC’s official result is 21.35 percent.
“Similarly, Yiaga Africa estimates that the percentage of rejected ballots is 1.6 per cent and 2.2 per cent.
“The official result for rejected ballot is 1.89 per cent lending credence to the official figures announced by INEC”, Mbamalu said.
She said PRVT findings revealed that the results announced by INEC for the 21 local government areas were consistent with the PRVT estimates for the governorship election in Anambra.
She commended the Chairman of the 2025 Anambra Election Mission, Dr Asmau Maikudi, and Executive Director, Yiaga Africa, Samson Itodo for their efforts during the election. NAN
