Edo Governorship Election: Observers Raise Concerns Over Overvoting, IREV Uploads

The Edo State governorship election, held on September 21, 2024, saw voters across 18 Local Government Areas cast their ballots.

Observers from the Centre for Democracy and Development West Africa (CDD-West Africa), who deployed 70 trained monitors, raised concerns over instances of overvoting and issues with the INEC Result Viewing Portal (IREV).

CDD-West Africa flagged several incidents of overvoting, particularly in Etsako East Local Government.

The observers said in one polling unit in the Weppa Registration Area, the All Progressives Congress (APC) recorded 352 votes, while only 213 voters were accredited.

Similar discrepancies were noted in Okpella IV, where the APC’s vote count exceeded the accredited voter number by over 100 votes in some units.

“These inconsistencies are troubling. We observed several cases where the number of votes recorded exceeded the accredited voters, raising concerns about the integrity of the process,” Professor Adele Jinadu, Chair of CDD’s Election Analysis Centre said.

There were also reports of blurred and incomplete results uploaded to the IREV portal, which is supposed to provide real-time transparency.

Despite the initial success of timely uploads—over 83% of results were posted by 6 p.m. on election day—the process slowed down, with some units experiencing delays and errors in upload.

Blurry images of results were noted in Ovia North-East, and discrepancies between the uploaded results and accredited voter numbers were recorded in some units.

CDD urged INEC to review the IREV uploads against the announced results, calling for corrective actions where necessary.

“Transparency is key. INEC must address these issues to maintain public confidence in the electoral process,” Jinadu said.

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