By Josephine Oguntoyinbo
An election monitoring organisation, Yiaga Africa, has confirmed that the official results of the 2024 Ondo governorship election reflect the ballots cast at polling units.
Also, TAF Africa,an organisation committed to enhancing the participation of Persons With Disabilities (PWD) in political and electoral processes, commended the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), civil society partners and all stakeholders who contributed to the peaceful conduct of the governorship election in the state.
Yiaga stated that if the official results had been altered at the ward, local government, or state collation centres, they would not have fallen within Yiaga Africa’s WTV estimated ranges.
It therefore emphasised that, because the official results fall within the estimated ranges, governorship contestants, parties, and voters should have confidence in the final results.
Yiaga Africa commended the people of Ondo for their resilience and dedication to conducting a non-violent election, encouraging them to remain engaged in the democratic process even after the elections by holding elected officials accountable for their campaign promises.
According to the statement: “On Saturday, 16 November 2024, Yiaga Africa deployed the Process and Results Verification for Transparency (PRVT) methodology to observe the Ondo State governorship election. This involved 300 stationary and 24 roving observers, covering a representative sample of polling units across all 18 LGAs.
TAF said it deployed 20 stationary citizen observers and five roving media observers across polling units with registered PWD voters to assess the inclusivity of the election.
The Chief Executive Officer of the TAF, Ambassador Jake Epelle stated this during the post-election statement on the 2024 Ondo State governorship election held in Akure ,the state capital.
Epelle, who noted that the observation mission of the organisation was guided by a singular goal, said it evaluated the compliance of INEC with the provision of the Electoral Act (Section 54, subsection 1 and 2) for inclusive elections and, which mandate the deployment of assistive tools and the prioritization of PWD voters.
The organisation expressed displeasure over inadequate deployment of assistive tools for PWDs despite explicit legal mandates, critical assistive tools such as braille ballot guides and magnifying glasses were glaringly absent in polling units with registered blind voter and voters with albinism..
It emphasized on the need to strengthen measures to curb vote buying, including enhanced monitoring and enforcement mechanism