2023 Election: Yiaga Africa Alleges Manipulation of Imo, Rivers Results

Yiaga Africa, a non-governmental organisation, has accused the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) of manipulating the results of the presidential election in Imo and Rivers states. In a joint statement titled ‘The 2023 presidential elections are once again a missed opportunity: INEC must be fundamentally reformed’, Dr Aisha Abdullahi, Chair Watching The Vote, and Samson Itodo, Executive Director Yiaga Africa, said the results announced by INEC were inconsistent with their projections for both states.

According to the statement, Yiaga Africa estimated that in Rivers State, the All Progressives Congress (APC) would win 21.7% of the votes while the Labour Party would win 50.8% and the People's Democratic Party (PDP) 22.2%. INEC, however, declared that the APC won 44.2% of the votes, while LP won 33.4% and PDP won 16.9%. The organisation's estimated figures for Imo State were an APC win of 5.1%, a Labour Party win of 88.1%, and a PDP win of 5.7%. However, INEC declared that the APC won 14.2%, LP won 77.1%, and PDP won 6.5%.

Yiaga Africa said that based on reports from 97% of the polling units sampled, the APC had a higher percentage of votes. The organisation also recommended that INEC should address the inconsistencies in the results from Imo and Rivers states and extend voting hours to 5:00 pm in subsequent elections. They also urged the electoral body to sustain the uploads of polling unit results from EC 8A on its IReV portal.

The report further called for fundamental reform of INEC, stating that the 2023 presidential election was another missed opportunity for the commission to demonstrate its commitment to credible and transparent elections.