The Electoral Hub has declared the November 16, 2024 Ondo State governorship election as one of the best conducted by the Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) in terms of integrity and service delivery.
In a post-election statement made available to NewsNGR, the organisation particularly commended the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Mrs. Oluwatoyin Babalola, for demonstrating effective leadership.
According to the Electoral Hub’s Director, Princess Hamman-Obels, the election witnessed several improvements compared to previous polls, including electoral logistics and inclusivity as well as compliance with election timetable and schedule.
“The Commission executed all activities as outlined in its timetable and schedule for the election seamlessly and timely, complying with the legal frameworks for election. This level of compliance demonstrates INEC’s commitment to safeguarding the integrity of the electoral process.
The observer said Registration Area Centres (RACs) were over 75% operational before 7 pm on the eve of the election while the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) performed effectively both for accreditation and results upload.
“The effective use of BVAS played a crucial role in enhancing electoral service delivery of INEC, such as quick and smooth voter accreditation, reducing incidents of impersonation and enhancing transparency.
“The BVAS performance was also excellent during result management process, as over 90% of the PU results EC8A were already uploaded on the IReV by 6.30pm on election day. This is one of the quickest records so far since the introduction of the BVAS technology. BVAS contributed significantly to the credibility and integrity of the voting and result access process,” it said.
On performance of the Results Viewing Portal (IReV), Electoral Hub said prompt uploading of polling unit resultsto to the portal allowed for real-time monitoring of election outcomes, “fostering transparency and trust in voters and citizens.”
It said, “As of 6pm on election day, over 80% the PU election result had been uploaded to the IReV portal. At the end of the process on November 17, 2024, a total of 3,907 out of 3,933 PU results have been uploaded to the portal representing 99.34% of the PU results.”
“We observed at the State Collation Centre that by 11.40pm of election day, 10 out of the 18 LGAs had brought their results and by 2am, additional 5 LGAs brought results. State collation started at 12midnight. The remaining 3LGAs -Odigbo (340 PUs), Ilaje (292 PUs) and Ese Odo (143 PUs) – came on Sunday morning due to their distance and terrain (riverine LGAs).”
However, the observer reported incidents of violence, ballot snatching, and shooting in Idanre Local Government Area.
It also stated that voter turnout was low 25%, with only 508,963 votes cast out of 2,053,061 registered voters. Vote buying was also reported with major political parties buying votes for between N3,000 and N10,000.
The Electoral Hub, an interdisciplinary knowledge, policy and advocacy centre, called on all stakeholders to remain engaged in the democratic process and continue demanding transparency and accountability from electoral institutions and political leaders.