Osun 2022: Yiaga Africa to Deploy 562 Observers on Election Day

Yinka Kolawole in Osogbo

A non-governmental organisation, Yiaga Africa, yesterday hinted that it would deploy over 562 observers for the July 16 gubernatorial election in Osun State.

Speaking at Yiaga Africa watching the vote (WTV) media round table with stakeholders in media organisations in Osogbo, the Programme Manager (Election), Mr. Paul James, noted that about 500 observers to watch the votes would also be made available during the election.

He stressed further that Yiaga Africa would also deploy 32 long-term observers for the state pre-election environment across the 30 local government area of the state to track and report on activities of the stakeholders in the election.

James equally pointed out that it would help in the electoral process as well as tracking and reporting early warning signs for electoral violence.

The programme manager further stated that for additional oversight, watching the vote would also deploy 30 observers to observe the results collation process at the local government results collation centres while one observer at the state results collation centres.

He also added that for the election day observation, Yiaga Africa’s watching the vote would be using an advanced election day observation methodology called the parallel vote tabulation (PVT).

The programme manager stressed that the PVT is an election day observation methodology that leverage statistics and technology for the observation of the process of voting and counting and tallying of results.

However, the Yiaga Africa has promised to provide timely and accurate information about the election process to voters and stakeholders.

The non-governmental organisation also vowed to ensure that citizens’ votes count by deterring fraud and manipulations during the conduct of elections and collation of results as well as build citizens confidence in the election.

Also speaking at the round table, a board member for Yiaga Africa, Ezenwa Nwagwu, stressed that watching the vote would be a comprehensive observation of the electoral process, which includes the observation of the pre-election environment, election day and post-election.