YIAGA AFRICA IDENTIFIES WEAKEST LINK IN ELECTIONS

A citizen-led movement under the Watching The Vote (WTV) Working Group better known as Yiaga Africa has identified collation of election results by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as the weakest link ahead of Edo State gubernatorial election billed for September 21.




Mr Paul James, Programme Manager of elections Monitoring Group disclosed this at a training programme for journalists/CSOs on Tuesday (20th August, 2024) in Benin City, Edo State where he corrected some misconceptions about the Organization.

According to him, “In Nigeria, one of the weakest links in election is COLLATION. That is why results from polling units are the purest.”

Mr James stated that Yiaga Africa has worked with over 40,000 Nigerians over the years in promoting democratic governance in Nigeria.

The Programme Manager, Yiaga Africa also stated that Yiaga team would collate data from 300 polling Units from the 4,419 polling Units in Edo State.

He further revealed that 25 Yiaga election Observers would be deployed across the 18 Local Government Areas of the State.

He harped on the deployment of use of Information Communication Technology (ICT) and statistics, as well as build citizens confidence in the forthcoming poll through the Process Verification Results for Transparency Technology (PRVT).

In her presentation, Safiya Bichi, head of knowledge, Management, Learning Yiaga Africa took participants through memory lane on 10 indicators of violence during elections.

She stated that the factors include communal clashes, destruction of campaign posters by political thugs and other issues of concern.

The resource person of the Non-Governmental Organization said it’s committed to credible election, noting that they have “projected that there is likelihood of low turn out of voters.

“The election is going to be competitive because there are other factors within the contest that will likely affect the outcome of the election,” according to her.

A Board member of Yiaga Africa, Prof. Nnamdi Aduba, who sued for knowledge sharing and intelligence sharing, lamented the convoluted nature of Nigeria politics and avoidable irregularities during polls in Nigeria.

The University of Jos lecturer argued that it is easy to get the buy-in of voters in an election if the electoral process is transparent and credible.

He said, “I am so happy about what I am seeing around; democracy is for everyone. If you empower the natives, you will know that they are not stupid,” Prof. Aduba said.

The Edo State chairman, Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Comrade Festus Alenkhe, commended Yiaga Africa and urged media practitioners to remain apolitical and prioritize safety over personal gains, ahead of the forthcoming poll.

Earlier, the President, Conference of Non-Governmental Organizations (CONGOS), Comrade Bartholomew Okudo, expressed optimism that the training would help INEC achieve set objectives.

Source:
https://thenewspad.com/yiaga-africa-identifies-weakest-link-in-elections/

There are still ways which we can FORCE the INEC to do clean and Transparent Collations -- which are very much in line with the Electoral-Act-2022.

AND THIS METHOD WHICH I AM CURRENTLY SUGGESTING HERE-UNDER (BELOW) INSIDE THIS VERY COMMENT IS VERY SIMPLE.


I am suggesting that concerned citizens (most especially political parties, or Civil Society Organisations) to get court orders to force the INEC to do their results-collations according to the dictates of the Electoral-Act-2022; especially the following Sections listed below:

1. Section:64(4a)
2. Section:64(6b)
3. Section:64(9)....

That-is;

For Section:64(4a); A Court Order is needed in order to Mandate INEC to ensure that No Collation at any level of collation (Even at the final level of collation) can start-off unless the Accreditation-values which were CAPTURED INSIDE THE BVAS MACHINES were called-up and used to verify and confirm the Accreditation-Values that were recorded inside the result sheets.

This means that, the verification of the Accreditation-values should not happen only at the WRAD-LEVEL Collation-Centers, but all the way to the Final Collation Level.

Therefore,, since INEC had chosen to opt for the MANUAL TRANSMISSION (which also includes the Manual Transmission of the BVAS MACHINES),, they have to ADHERE STRICTLY to what the Electoral-Act-2022 says that must be done before the Collation at any level must begin.

This definitely means that Collation Exercises would now take weeks or even months for them to be complete (this is because, the INEC would have to MANUALLY AND PHYSICALLY TRANSMIT both the results sheets and the BVAS-MACHINES to all the collation centers).



And for Section:64(6b); A Court Order is needed in order to Mandate INEC to ensure that Once there is Dispute at any level of collation, the Collation-Officer must COMPLETELY SOLVE ALL THE DISPUTES before sending the results to the upper-level collation officers...

The collation officers shouldn't be telling the people and the stakeholders that the dispute they raised would be solved at the final end of Collation..

The Electoral-Act mandated the Collation Officers to solve all the disputes by PHYSICALLY CALLING FOR THE BVAS-MACHINES OF ALL SUCH DISPUTED POLLING-UNITS..

If any Collation Officer fails to settle the disputes raised at his Collation Center,, or even goes ahead to settle the disputes without calling for the BVAS-Machines, they have violated the Electoral-Act-2022; and he should be flagged, and his case should be escalated.


....
Then, for the Section:64(9); A Court Order is needed in order to Mandate INEC to ensure that any Collation Officer who didn't do their collations or settle the raised disputes according to the Electoral-Act-2022, they should be found LIABLE,, and they should be prosecuted and punished accordingly for violating the Electoral-Act.

This also means that the RESULTS THAT COMES OUT FROM SUCH A COLLATION CENTER had been rendered Null-and-void, since the Collation Officer didn't do the right things according to the Electoral-Act-2022, and thus, there would be need for a total re-collation using the BVAS-MACHINES and the original EC8As for such Flawed Collation Centers.

..

Since the INEC had chosen to out-rule the use Electronic Transmission,, and had based their Rascality on the Electoral-Act-2022, we (the voters) should really stop hurting ourselves by expecting the INEC to still come back again and use any form of the Electronic Transmission again...,, BECAUSE, THEY WILL STILL NOT USE IT AT THOSE AREAS WHERE THEY HOPE TO RIG MASSIVELY, AND THEY WILL STILL COME BACK AT THE COURTS AND USE THE LOOPHOLES IN THE ELECTORAL-ACT-2022 TO ESCAPE JUDGEMENT.


...


What we have to do now is to accept the Fact that we are FULLY in the ERA OF USING MANUAL TRANSMISSION,, and then, use court orders to Force the INEC to Also Physically and MANUALLY Transmit the BVAS-MACHINES..

And if anything happens to the BVAS-MACHINES in the course of transmitting it manually, the results whose Accreditation-values are supposed to be VERIFIED and CONFIRMED with those tampered BVAS-MACHINES are to be considered NULL-AND-VOID..

..

Maybe with these new procedures,,, by the time the INEC suffers the burden of Manually Transmitting the Accreditation-values (that-is; transferring the whole BVAS-MACHINES) from the Polling-units to the Wards, and up to the Final Collation Points,, either once or twice in any of the OFF-CYCLE ELECTIONS,, they themselves (and all the other stakeholders involved) will massively push for the National Assembly members to quickly and hastily include the “Electronic-Transmission” and “Electronic-Collation” in Clear Terms inside the Electoral-Act.


..

It's time to tell the INEC that “ENOUGH IS ENOUGH”..

Since they they are deliberately creating LEGAL LOOPHOLES, then, let us all play the game their way..

We will also enter inside that Legal Loophole with them and make it LEGALLY WIDER and more comfortable for all of us.

Dcc

It’s not collation

We have a fraudulent System
The solution is electronic voting

Ttipsy:
It’s not collation

We have a fraudulent System
The solution is electronic voting

If Electronic Voting would still happen physically at the Polling-units,, then it is still the same as Manual Voting..

We Need An Electronic Voting where we vote with our Personal Mobile Gadgets/Devices.

BluntCrazeMan:


If Electronic Voting would still happen physically at the Polling-units,, then it is still the same as Manual Voting..

We Need An Electronic Voting where we vote with our Personal Mobile Gadgets/Devices.

Anything to take way manual voting system is welcome

Cuz results are manipulated manually

Lalasticlala, Nlfpmod, Fergie001