An election observer group, Yiaga Africa, has predicted low voter turnout for the Imo, Bayelsa and Kogi governorship elections despite a high collection rate of permanent voters.
The organization based the prediction on “pre-election violence, a deep sense of citizens’ distrust, apparent fear of intimidation, voter fatigue, and loss of faith in elections as a means to achieving democratic leadership.”
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To avoid the situation, Yiaga Africa advocated for eleventh-hour confidence-building voter education to improve voter turnout.
A Member of the Board of Yiaga Africa, Ezenwa Nwagwu, stated this during a pre-election press conference yesterday in Abuja.
The organization would be deploying 659 duly trained and accredited stationary and roving observers to observe the conduct of the governorship election in the three states.
According to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the number of Permanent Voters Cards (PVC) collected in Bayelsa was 1,017,613, Imo, 2,318,919, and 1,833,160 in Kogi State.
“Despite these high collection rates, Yiaga Africa projects low voter turnout in the respective states owing to the spate of pre-election violence, a deep sense of citizens’ distrust, an apparent fear of intimidation, voter fatigue, and a loss of faith in elections as a means to achieving democratic leadership. Yiaga Africa advocates for eleventh-hour confidence-building voter education to improve voter turnout,” Nwagwu said.
He said at the end of the polls, Yiaga Africa observers would be deployed to all LGAs and State’s results collation centres to observe and report on the results collation process.
Nwagwu said: “This will involve deploying 600 stationary observers to a representative randomly selected sample of 300 polling units for each of these 2 states. In addition to the PRVT methodology, Yiaga Africa will deploy nine observers in Bayelsa State to observe the process and LGA results collation.”