2023 Election: Yiaga Africa Reactivates National Election Observation Structure
- Ahead of the 2023 general elections, preparations have intensified across various spheres of electoral stakeholders
- Yiaga Africa, the continent's apex electoral observer group, announced its preparedness for the 2023 general elections
- The group says it will deploy its observers across the 774 local governments for the election
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Lagos, Ikeja - In the build-up to the 2023 general elections, Africa's election observer group, Yiaga Africa has reactivated its national election observation structure through its Watching The Vote (WTV) project.
The national election observation structure consists of 48 state focal persons, 42 master trainers, and 774 local government supervisors across Nigeria in preparation to provide comprehensive oversight of the electoral process.
Source: Twitter
Cynthia Mbamalu, the director of programs Yiaga Africa announced the reactivation on Monday, November 7 during the National Training of Trainers on the Parallel Vote Tabulation methodology and Pre-election Observation (PREO) held in Lagos.
According to her, the initiative signals the commencement of WTV election observation intervention for the 2023 general elections.
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During the training, Cynthia said the 2023 general election is an opportunity to provide independent oversight on the electoral process to provide quality data to counter misinformation and build our electoral democracy.
She said:
"If people do not trust the system, the voter turnout will not increase in the 2023 elections."
She stated that the WTV would play an important role in building citizens' confidence in the process by providing accurate and timely information.
Cynthia said election observation is the service that Nigerians provide to improve our electoral process.
She commended the role of citizen observers in the electoral process, saying observers are the vanguard of Nigeria's electoral democracy.
Yiaga Africa applaud CSOs for success of Electoral Act
She hailed the role of observers and Civil Society Organisations in the passage of the 2022 Electoral Act, saying there are progressive provisions in the electoral law that can propel development in the electoral process.
Cynthia said:
"The only thing that will ensure the act achieves its purpose is our ability to educate the citizen on how the law can improve the process and guaranty transparency saying.
"It all starts with the leadership we provide as citizen observers who is engaging in voter education in our respective communities and we must engage with the utmost diligence, dedication and honesty. "
"Also, it's our ability to provide oversight on the electoral process using existing laws and electoral guidelines and provide information on the functionality of election technology amongst other electoral processes."
For the 2023 General elections, she stated that Yiaga Africa will serve as a source of truth using the Parallel Vote Tabulation methodology to provide information on the electoral process and verify the accuracy of election results.
This, according to her, it will serve as a conflict mitigation tool to prevent or minimize post-election violence "regardless of the nature of the election, PVT will serve as a single source of truth", saying Yiaga Africa's obligation is for all Nigerians alone and not any political party or institution.
Yiaga Africa unveils facts about e-transmission of results in Ekiti, Osun polls
In another development, the conduct of the just concluded gubernatorial polls in Osun and Ekiti states has been greeted with inconsistencies.
A report by Yiaga Africa revealed that there were disparities in the electronic transmission of results at the gubernatorial polls.
However, the election observer group has urged INEC to step up and learn from its shortcomings ahead of the 2023 polls.
Source: Legit.ng
