Yiaga Africa: We’ll Check Rigging in Anambra Governorship Poll

By David-Chyddy Eleke

A non-governmental organisation (NGO), Yiaga Africa, has said it would deploy Parallel Vote Tabulation (PVT) to monitor the Anambra State governorship election, to check rigging.

The Head of Elections Programme for Yiaga Africa, Mr. Paul James, disclosed this in Awka, the state capital, yesterday during the Yiaga Africa’s Watching the Vote (WTV) media roundtable with journalists on the forthcoming governorship election in the state.

He said: “#WatchingTheVote (WTV) is a comprehensive observation of the electoral process which includes the observation of the pre-election period environment.

“For the election day observation, Yiaga Africa’s WTV will use an advanced election day observation methodology called the Parallel Vote Tabulation (PVT).

“The PVT is an election day observation methodology that leverages on statistics and technology to observe the process of voting, counting and tallying of results.

“We are deploying 500 observers to 250 polling units in the state. Each polling unit will have two observers on the election day. With the results assembled from the sampled polling units, a citizen observer group can release projected estimates and verify the accuracy of results declared by the election management body.”

James said using this methodology, observer reports are sent via text message to a central database which enables WTV to analyse and share timely findings on the conduct of the election in near real-time.

According to him, “The PVT allows Yiaga Africa’s WTV to present an accurate and comprehensive assessment of the election day processes, such as whether election officials comply with the guidelines for the conduct of elections; the presence of security agents; the presence and behaviour of party agents; secrecy of the ballot and transparency of the counting process.

“It is the only observation methodology that can independently verify the accuracy of election day result as released by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) which is the body legally mandated to do so.”

He said a total of 548 observers would be working for the organisation on the election day in the state, adding that even though the group doesn’t announce election results as it is exclusive of the INEC to do so, it can raise the alarm where the result announced by INEC fails to align with its own.

Earlier, a member of the board of Yiaga Africa, Mr. Ezenwa Nwagwu, said the group, prior to the election, would set up a situation room, where data would be collated and analysed.