30 a.m. – Yiaga Africa

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) officials arrived at 78 per cent of the 300 polling units being observed by Yiaga Africa in the Osun State governorship election by 8:30 a.m. on Saturday.

Yiaga, through its Watching the Vote (WTV) Working Group, said its observers reported the arrival of INEC officials at 251 of the 300 polling units being monitored for the Osun State governorship election.

“By 8:30 a.m., INEC officials had arrived at 78% of the 300 polling units where our #WatchingTheVote observers are reporting from,” the organisation said in a statement shared on Saturday.

The organisation said the figures provide an early indication of preparedness and the pace of commencement of electoral activities across the polling units under observation.

“This provides an early snapshot of the pace of preparations across the polling units being observed,” Yiaga Africa said.

INEC guidelines require election officials to arrive at their assigned polling units at least one hour before the scheduled commencement of voting, which is 8:30 a.m. for the Osun governorship election. This means officials were expected to arrive at their polling units by 7:30 a.m.

Yiaga Africa deployed observers across the state under its WTV initiative to independently monitor the conduct of the election, including the arrival of election officials and materials, accreditation and voting, the use of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), accessibility and other aspects of the electoral process.

Pre-election preparations

The latest update comes a day after Yiaga Africa’s WTV Working Group inspected INEC offices in selected local government areas across Osun State to assess the commission’s preparation and deployment of election materials ahead of Saturday’s poll.

PREMIUM TIMES reported that at the INEC office in Ejigbo Local Government Area on Friday, the Electoral Officer said sensitive election materials had arrived in the early hours of the day, with the delivery completed shortly before 4 a.m.

However, the situation was different in Ede North Local Government Area, where INEC officials were still sorting election materials after 11 a.m. on Friday.

The varying pace of deployment had raised questions about the readiness of the electoral officials and the timely movement of materials to polling units ahead of the election.

The Saturday election is an off-cycle governorship election in which voters across the state are choosing the governor who will lead Osun for the next four years.

Yiaga Africa’s monitoring is expected to provide an independent assessment of the conduct of the election from the opening of polling through accreditation, voting, counting and the declaration of results.