Yiaga Africa Finds Irregularities in Imo and Rivers Presidential Election Results

Yiaga Africa, a Civil Society Organization that worked with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in the 2023 election, has expressed its disapproval of the presidential results that came from Imo and Rivers state. On Wednesday, March 1, the organization released a statement saying that the results announced by INEC were manipulated. According to the statement, the results for Rivers were inconsistent with Yiaga Africa’s WTV projections for the state. INEC announced 231,591 votes for APC or 44.2 percent; 175,071 for LP or 33.4 percent; and 88,468 for PDP or 16.9 percent. However, Yiaga Africa’s estimates were: APC 21.7 percent ±5.0 percent; for LP 50.8 percent ±10.6 percent; and PDP 22.2 percent ±6.5 percent. For Imo, INEC announced 66,406 for APC or 14.2 percent; 360,495 for LP or 77.1 percent; and 30,234; for PDP or 6.5 percent. Yiaga Africa’s estimates for Imo were: APC 5.1 ±2.3 percent; LP 88.1 percent ±3.8 percent; and PDP 5.7 percent ±2.3 percent. Based on reports from 97 percent (1,453 of 1507) of sampled polling units, Yiaga Africa’s statistical analysis showed that the All Progressives Congress (APC) should receive between 34.4 percent and 37.4 percent of the vote, Labour Party (LP) should receive between 24.2 percent and 28.4 percent of the votes, the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) should receive between 4.6 percent and 6.4 percent of the vote, People’s Democratic Party (PDP) should receive between 28.3 percent and 31.1 percent of the vote, while no other political party should receive more than 0.3% of the vote. In light of this, Yiaga Africa has asked INEC to explain the discrepancies in some of the results, particularly from Rivers and Imo states, and also called for an extension of voting hours to 5 pm in future elections as well as a sustained upload of polling unit results form EC 8A on its IReV portal.