An election defined by operational deficiencies, election security challenges, and abysmal voter turnout Introduction Yiaga Africa deployed trained and accredited roving observers to observe the 12th February 2022 FCT Area Council elections in the six Area Councils of the FCT. Yiaga Africa observers deployed by 7:30 am and they visited polling units within the sixty-two...

Women political Inclusion Under Threat as FCT heads to the Polls.  Introduction The administration and management of local government as the third tier of government in Nigeria has consistently fallen below the expected standard of democratic leadership. This is further enabled by the absence of credible and transparent elections at the local level in the...

The undersigned Civil Society groups commend the swift action taken by the National Assembly upon resumption to review its position on direct primaries as the sole mode for nomination of candidates in the Electoral Bill 2021. At today’s plenary, the Senate and House of Representatives recommitted the Electoral Bill 2021 with proposed amendment to Clause...

Ahead of the Federal Capital Territory Area Council elections, the FCT Resident Electoral Commissioner of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Alhaji Yahaya Bello has reiterated the commitment of INEC to partner with Yiaga Africa and other credible Civil Society Organisations to ensure improvement in the electoral process. The REC said this on Tuesday when...

Civil Society Statement on the need for the National Assembly to Act with Dispatch on the Electoral Bill on Resumption from Recess 17 January 2022 On Sunday 16 January 2022, the undersigned Civil Society Organizations hosted a Citizens’ Townhall Forum on the Electoral Bill 2021 the need for the National Assembly to prioritize the review...

Following the President’s decision to decline assent to the Electoral Bill 2021, civil society groups undertook an in-depth and comprehensive review of the bill to ensure all editorial, drafting and cross-referencing gaps are addressed. The review identified drafting errors, repetition and cross-referencing gaps in eleven sections of the bill. Cross-referencing errors were identified in five...

Yiaga Africa has charged the leadership of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and the media in Anambra State to address the poor political culture which led to the abysmally low turnout in the just concluded November 6th Governorship elections in the State. WTV post -election with CSO and media in Anambra The charge was given by...

In a bid to document the lessons, successes and challenges experienced during the Anambra governorship election, Yiaga Africa’s Elections Team conducted a post-election debrief with its observers to chart pathways for an improved electoral process.  The debrief which was held in Awka, the Anambra state capital, provided an opportunity for its Watching The Vote State...

Recent elections in Nigeria have continued to reveal how increasingly difficult it is to manipulate the process either by politicians or electoral officials. This may not be unconnected to the improving synergy between electoral stakeholders and continuous deployment of technology to enhance further transparency while blocking loopholes that can be exploited for electoral manipulation. There...

INTRODUCTION Yiaga Africa’s post election press conference for Anambra Governorship election On Saturday, November 6, the people of Anambra state went to the polls to elect a governor that would lead the state for the next four years. Yiaga Africa employs the Parallel Vote Tabulation (PVT) methodology – the gold standard for citizen election observation...