YIAGA Africa has commended the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and security agencies for their professional conduct during Saturday’s Osun governorship election.

Chairman of the YIAGA Africa Osun Election Observation Mission, Asmau Maikudi, gave the commendation during the group’s process and verification statement on the election on Sunday in Osogbo.

Ms Maikudi stated that ahead of the election, YIAGA Africa had described the poll as a defining test of electoral preparedness, security neutrality and public trust.

She said the group argued that INEC, security agencies and political parties would be judged by their conduct and performance on election day.

“With the election concluded, the evidence suggests that INEC and security agencies largely passed that test.

“This conclusion is important because Osun was not an ordinary off-cycle election.

“It was the last major governorship election before the 2027 general election and one of the earliest major tests of the Electoral Act 2026 and the new regulatory framework for election administration and results management,” she said.

Ms Maikudi said the group employed the Process and Results Verification for Transparency (PRVT) methodology and deployed 300 observers and 32 mobile observers across the 30 local government areas, in addition to 30 LGA results collation observers.

Highlighting the key findings on election-day processes, Ms Maikudi said one of INEC’s clearest improvements was logistics.

She said that despite the significant disruption caused by the last-minute court-ordered inclusion of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), which required INEC to reprint ballot papers and result sheets barely days before the election, the commission largely succeeded in deploying personnel and materials to polling units on time.

According to her, by 8:30 a.m., 48 per cent of polling units had begun accreditation and voting, rising to 96 per cent by 9:30 a.m.

“This compares favourably with the 2022 Osun governorship election, where YIAGA Africa’s observation showed that accreditation and voting had commenced in only 41 per cent of polling units by 8:30 a.m. and 96 per cent by 9:30 a.m.,” she said.

Ms Maikudi also said the group monitored the functionality of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), noting that it functioned properly in 80 per cent of polling units.

She said BVAS malfunctioned in 20 per cent of polling units, although the issues were resolved.

Ms Maikudi said INEC’s official results were consistent with YIAGA Africa’s Watching the Vote (WTV) estimate, as they fell within the group’s estimated range.

“This indicates that the official results, as announced, reflect the ballots counted at polling units,” she said.

She said, however, that widespread reports of vote-buying and voter inducement raised serious concerns about the integrity of voters’ choices.

On the conduct of security agencies during the election, Maikudi said they largely demonstrated restraint.

“The campaign period was characterised by violence, inflammatory rhetoric and apprehension about the neutrality of security agencies.

“Against that background, the generally professional conduct of security personnel on Election Day deserves acknowledgement.

“The election demonstrated that robust security deployment need not translate into excessive interference in the electoral process.

“This standard must be sustained. The real measure of security neutrality is consistency across elections, regardless of which political party controls the state or federal government,” she said.

Ms Maikudi said the Osun election demonstrated that INEC could meet a high operational standard, apply the Electoral Act 2026 and transmit results transparently when the election was well resourced and closely observed.

She commended the people of Osun for their resilience and commitment to democracy by turning out to vote.

She encouraged them to sustain the commitment beyond the election by holding political parties and candidates accountable for their campaign promises.

(NAN)