Osun poll: Yiaga urges BVAS audit, praises voters’ vigilance

Election observer group Yiaga Africa lauded the vigilance of voters in Osun State, Nigeria, as the most effective safeguard against result manipulation in the recent governorship election. Citizens actively monitored the process from polling units to collation centers, ensuring announced figures accurately reflected counted votes.

Yiaga Africa's Process and Results Verification for Transparency (PRVT) statement, released after the August 15 poll, highlighted the election as a significant demonstration of how technology, citizen oversight, and institutional preparedness can bolster electoral integrity. The group's statistical estimates closely aligned with the Independent National Electoral Commission's (INEC) official results, suggesting the announced figures were consistent with the votes cast at polling units.

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The resilience of voters in Osun was the quiet achievement of the August 15th elections. Citizens went to the polls in an environment shaped by the attack on PVC collection centres, politically linked violence, contestation over motor parks, and weeks of inflammatory rhetoric, conditions that Yiaga Africa warned could suppress voter participation.

The Chairperson of the Osun Election Observation Mission, Dr. Asmau Maikudi, reported that 300 observers and 32 mobile observers were deployed across the state's 30 local government areas. Their findings were based on reports from 289 sampled polling units. Maikudi emphasized that the election served as a defining test for the Electoral Act 2026, proving that credible outcomes are achievable when institutions, technology, and citizens collaborate effectively.

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Despite this tension, voters came out regardless. The turnout of 43% achieved under that apprehension is not a story of apathy but of citizens who refused to be intimidated out of the process.

Despite an environment marked by attacks on PVC collection centers, politically linked violence, and inflammatory rhetoric, voters displayed remarkable resilience. Yiaga Africa noted that the 43% turnout, achieved under apprehension, was not a sign of apathy but a refusal to be intimidated. Voters extended their engagement beyond casting ballots, participating in the "Protect Your Vote" campaign by staying to witness result sorting, counting, and announcement, and following them to collation centers. This vigilance, Yiaga Africa stated, was the most potent deterrent against result manipulation.

The group also observed improvements in election-day logistics, with 96% of polling units opening on time. The Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) functioned effectively in 80% of units and was rectified in the remaining 20%, despite INEC needing to reprint ballots due to a last-minute court order regarding the Social Democratic Party's inclusion.

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Voters also did not stop at casting the ballot. In line with Yiaga Africa’s pre-election Protect Your Vote campaign, they stayed back at polling units to witness the sorting, counting and announcement of results, and followed those results to ward and LGA collation centres to see them entered and declared. That vigilance is the most effective deterrent to result manipulation.