Election observer group Yiaga Africa has said the vigilance of voters was a major factor in preventing Possible manipulation of results during Saturday’s Osun State governorship election.
The organisation said voters not only cast their ballots but remained at polling units to witness the sorting, counting and announcement of results before following the figures to ward and local government collation centres.
Yiaga Africa made the disclosure on Sunday in Osogbo while presenting its Process and Results Verification for Transparency (PRVT) statement on the election.
According to the group, its statistical estimates closely matched the official results announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission, suggesting that the figures declared at the state collation centre reflected the results recorded at polling units.
The Chairperson of the Osun Election Observation Mission, Dr Asmau Maikudi, said Yiaga Africa deployed 300 stationary observers and 32 mobile observers across the state’s 30 local government areas.
She explained that the organisation based its assessment on reports from 289 of the 300 sampled polling units.
Maikudi described the August 15 election as a significant test of the Electoral Act 2026, saying the exercise demonstrated how technology, institutional preparedness and active citizen participation could contribute to electoral credibility.
She said voters demonstrated resilience despite concerns over attacks on Permanent Voter Card collection centres, politically linked violence, disputes involving motor parks and inflammatory rhetoric during the election period.
“Despite this tension, voters came out regardless. The turnout of 43 per cent achieved under that apprehension is not a story of apathy but of citizens who refused to be intimidated out of the process,” Yiaga Africa said.
The group noted that voters also followed results beyond the polling units, describing the practice as the “most effective deterrent to result manipulation”.
Yiaga Africa further reported improvements in election-day logistics, stating that 96 per cent of polling units in its sample had opened for accreditation and voting by 9:30am.
This was despite the reprinting of ballot papers by INEC following a last-minute court order concerning the inclusion of the Social Democratic Party on the ballot.
The organisation said the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) functioned in 80 per cent of the sampled polling units, while reported issues in the remaining 20 per cent were eventually resolved.
It also disclosed that downloadable Permanent Voter Cards introduced under the Electoral Act 2026 were used in 23 per cent of the polling units observed.
At the counting stage, Yiaga Africa reported that 99 per cent of polling units observed displayed how ballots were marked, while results were publicly posted in 91 per cent of the locations.
The group also said EC8A result forms were transmitted to the INEC Result Viewing (IReV) portal in 85 per cent of the polling units monitored.
However, Yiaga Africa called for further improvements ahead of the 2027 general elections.
It recommended that INEC issue clear and binding guidelines on the use of downloadable PVCs, conduct a technical audit of BVAS and publish the causes of biometric accreditation failures.
The organisation also urged INEC to improve the training of ad hoc election officials and called for stronger enforcement against vote buying by security agencies, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission.
Yiaga Africa said the lessons from the Osun election should be used to strengthen electoral processes and ensure greater transparency and accountability ahead of the 2027 elections.
