Protecting our Electoral Integrity
Yiaga Africa
A non-profit hub of change makers committed to promoting democratic governance, human rights, and civic engagement.
September was a busy month for us as voters in Edo State went to the polls to choose a new leadership for the next four years. Yiaga Africa’s WatchingTheVote Initiative, Nigeria’s largest citizen observer initiative, was on the ground to observe the elections to ensure electoral transparency and integrity. Our 325 trained and accredited observers enabled us to collect statistical data that we used to pass a verdict on the election: lacking in integrity.
We also celebrated the International Day of Democracy on September 15 in a unique way: an art exhibition and show with young creatives in the visual and performing arts, whose talent provided different perspectives of democracy and inspired our guests to reflect on the state of democracy in Nigeria, and what the future holds for it.
Finally, we continued to deepen our work in grassroots democracy as we reflected on two years of the People’s Assembly in Lagos State while we expanded our approach to deliberative democracy with one new People’s Assembly. We also intensified preparations to apply our newly developed Comprehensive LGA Election Index, a tool for assessing the quality of local government elections in the upcoming local government elections in Akwa Ibom and Kaduna States.
These and much more are contained in this edition of our monthly newsletter.
Happy Reading.
Our Verdict on the Edo State Governorship Elections
On September 21, registered voters in Edo State went to the polls to elect a new governor that will lead the state for the next four years. As part of our efforts to improve the credibility of our electoral process, we deployed 325 trained and accredited observers, with 300 of them stationed at sample polling units across the 18 local government areas of the state while 25 others were roving observers. This deployment under our Watching the Vote Initiative and supported by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) employed the Process and Results Verification for Transparency (PRVT) methodology to observe the electoral process from the setting up of polling units and the voting to the results collation.
Our observation mission on Election Day started by tracking the arrival of election officials at polling stations, the arrival of election materials, the times voting commenced and how the process went, which were captured in a mid-day situational statement.
Our estimates for turnout in the election, between 21% and 24%, validated the official turnout figure by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) of 22.4%.
Read Our Statement on the Turnout Projections
However, we have questioned the final results released by INEC. Our statistical analysis shows inconsistencies in the official results, as the figures scored by parties fell outside our PRVT estimates in certain local government areas of the state. This suggests that the results were altered at the collation point, especially as the collation process was disrupted in the said local government areas.
As a result, our verdict on the Edo State governorship election is that it failed the electoral integrity test due to the lack of transparency in the results collation process, which led to the manipulation of results.
Presenting the Citizens’ Memorandum on Electoral Reforms
Last month, we joined other members of the European Union Support to Democratic Governance in Nigeria (EU-SDGN) cohort to present the citizens’ memorandum on electoral reforms, a comprehensive set of recommendations for improving Nigeria’s electoral process. The presentation was made at a press conference and held on the heels of the Edo State governorship elections, which Yiaga Africa and other civil society organisations judged as lacking in credibility. The Citizens’ Memorandum draws on the experience of the 2023 General Elections. It focuses on two components of the electoral legal framework: the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended), and the 2022 Electoral Act. It contains thirty-seven (37) recommendations across fifteen (15) strategic objectives and addresses sixteen (16) priority reform areas.
Celebrating the International Day of Democracy
On September 15, we joined the rest of the world to celebrate the International Day of Democracy, a day set aside to commemorate promoting and upholding democracy’s values. This year’s theme, Navigating AI for Governance and Citizen Engagement, is very relevant to today’s world, with the growing adoption of artificial intelligence in all aspects of life.
AI holds immense potential to enhance transparency, accountability, and efficiency in decision-making, empowering governments to serve their people better. This gives it the power to shape the future of governance & for use as a tool for good governance. However, as we embrace AI’s transformative capabilities, we must also ensure that its development and use are governed effectively at all levels—nationally and internationally. By establishing ethical frameworks, promoting inclusive policies, and fostering international cooperation, we can harness AI’s benefits while mitigating risks and ensuring it serves the public good without compromising democratic values.
This is why, in March this year, we convened a gathering of election management experts, civic activists and tech policy leaders from across Africa to a two-day conference that discussed the role of AI in shaping the future of African elections and looked at how guardrails can be defined to ensure that AI enhances citizen participation and improves the integrity of elections.
Democratic Expressions Through Creative Art
On the International Day of Democracy, we hosted government functionaries, civil society leaders, members of the diplomatic corps and art lovers to an art exhibition and performance titled, ‘Art4Democracy’, where young creatives expressed their perspectives on democracy in Nigeria through their paintings, drawings and spoken word performances. The Art4Democracy Exhibition, which is supported by the Open Society Foundations, a culmination of our work of several months with these young creatives in enabling them to use the power of their talent to inspire citizens to democratic participation, fight for social justice & provoke reflections on governance issues. Our guests were not only entertained but were also left with indelible impressions on their minds.
August made it two years since we launched the first set of Peoples’ Assemblies in Lagos State. Since then, we have launched three more through which we have trained citizens to engage with their elected local government representatives on pressing issues in their communities. This has also resulted in solutions being provided by the local governments. Last month, We took time to do a stock-taking and reflect on how effective the Peoples’ Assemblies have been in improving local governance and how to deepen the culture of deliberative democracy at the grassroots. The reflection workshop had the leadership of the six local government areas where the People’s Assembly has been set up and the leaders of the People’s Assemblies in attendance.
Facilitating Engagements Between Students and Legislators
Last month, we supported our NotTooYoungToRun hubs in the six tertiary institutions of Lagos State to hold town hall meetings with state legislators representing the districts where their schools are located. While the hubs located in the University of Lagos, the Federal College of Education (Technical), the Yaba College of Technology/Lagos State College of Health Technology (LASCOHET) and the Lagos State Polytechnic held a town hall with the members of the Lagos State House of Assembly representing the Lagos Mainland II Constituency, the hubs of the Lagos State University of Education hosted the member representing Epe I Constituency. The town hall meetings allowed the students to engage with legislators on education, job creation, and youth empowerment issues.
This month, local government elections will be held in Akwa Ibom and Kaduna States, two of the states where we are implementing our CSO-Led Advocacy & Engagement for Model SIECs project in partnership with the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES). We will be deploying our Comprehensive LGA Election Index, a tool for assessing the quality of local government elections in Nigeria. As part of preparations towards these elections, we held a radio town hall in Akwa Ibom State on the elections and have deployed volunteers to engage with voters on the need to participate in these elections. We also visited the new leadership of the Kaduna State Independent Electoral Commission (KADSIECOM) where we engaged with them on our ongoing partnership towards the election.
Our Footprints in the Media Space
Yiaga Africa’s September media footprint was recorded with about 300 news stories across print, broadcast, and online mediums. It was also a busy month for the members of our team, who made about 40 appearances on various platforms as guests and contributed expert commentary on democratic issues in Nigeria and Africa, particularly on the Edo elections:
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For any questions or comments about this newsletter, please contact us at feedback@yiaga.org.