From Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
Civil Society Organisation (CSO), Yiaga Africa, has claimed that the outcome of the November 11 governorship election in Kogi state was a true reflection of what transpired at the polling units.
Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had last weekend declared the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Usman Ododo, as the winner of the election.
And responding to the criticisms that have trailed the outcome of the election, Yiaga Africa, claimed that the outcome of the poll corroborated its reports drawn from 278 of 286 (97.2 per cent) sampled polling units during the election.
Yiaga Africa, which deployed observers and the Process/ Results Verification for Transparency (PRVT) methodology to oversee the election, insisted that the outcome reflected what transpired at the polling units.
The group made the disclosure at the presentation of its preliminary report on the November 2023 off-cycle governorship election in Bayelsa, Imo and Kogi states in Abuja.
On Kogi state result verification, Yiaga Africa argued that; “based on reports from 278 of 286 (97.2 per cent) sampled polling units, our statistical analysis shows that the APC should receive between 47.0 per cent and 59.0 per cent of the vote, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) should receive between 4.8 per cent and 7.4 per cent and Social Democratic Party (SDP) should receive between 31 per cent and 42.4 per cent of the vote. No other political party should receive more than 1.2 per cent of the vote.
“INEC’s turnout and rejected ballots for the 21 LGAs as announced are consistent with Yiaga Africa WTV PRVT estimates. Our turnout estimate is between 34. 4 per cent and 43.6 per cent (39.0 per cent ± 4.6 per cent) while INEC’s official turnout is 40 per cent.
“Similarly, Yiaga Africa estimates rejected ballots are between 0.9 per cent and 1.5 per cent (1.2 per cent + 0.3 per cent) while INEC’s official rejected ballots number is 1.45 per cent.
“INEC oficial results for the 2023 Kogi state governorship election are consistent with Yiaga Africa’s WTV estimate (specifically, it falls within Yiaga Africa’s WTV estimated range).
“Had the official results been changed at the ward, LGA, or state collation centres, the official results would not have fallen within the Yiaga Africa WTV estimated ranges,” it argued.