Ahead of the June 18, 2022 governorship election in Ekiti State, Yiaga Africa has trained and deployed 24 “Watching the Vote” (WTV) Long Term Observers (LTOs) across the 16 Local Government Areas in the state to observe and provide information on the level of preparations and other pre-election activities by all elections stakeholders in the state. Yiaga Africa said the LTOs were also trained to track, monitor and report incidents of violence that may impact the elections across all the 16 LGAs.
The organisation said this in a statement signed by its Executive Director, Samson Itodo in Abuja. According to the organisation, the violence monitoring will enable Yiaga Africa’s “Watching the Vote” to track early warning signs and escalate as necessary to prevent incidents that can hinder the successful conduct of the elections. It said the Ekiti governorship elections would be the first major election to be conducted using the newly signed Electoral Act 2022 which provided an opportunity for an assessment of the implementation of the new Act.
According to Yiaga Africa, while political party primaries had been concluded before the law was signed, the election day procedure will be guided by provisions of the new Act. The statement said: “The efficacy of critical provisions like the neutrality of INEC staff, deployment of technology, election results management and other critical provisions expected to promote electoral integrity will be tested in Ekiti. Ekiti also presents an opportunity for the assessment of INECs preparations for the 2023 elections based on the commission’s ability to improve on its processes and administration of elections learning from the FCT Area Council and 2021 Anambra governorship elections.
According to Yiaga Africa, the WTV pre-elections observers would observe and report issues relating to hate speech, intimidation and harassment of any electoral stakeholder, women, youth and persons with disability and attacks on media or INEC officials. “The LTOs will also report any incidents of government restrictions on political activities that may restrict equal participation in the process,” the statement partly read. The pre-election observation will include observing efforts by election stakeholders in educating and mobilising the voters ahead of the election to improve on the abysmally low turnout recorded in the 2018 elections. Major institutions/stakeholders whose activities will be observed include the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), National Orientation Agency (NOA), political parties and security agencies.”