By Clifford Ndujihe

A political group canvassing support for the Imo State Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Governorship Candidate, Senator Samuel Anyanwu, has disagreed with the election monitoring group, YIAGA Africa, over plots rig the November 11 poll in Imo State.

Specifically, the group, Orlu West Senatorial District for Anyanwu 20023, led by Donatus Nwogu, alleged that YIAGA Africa is working for the Labour Party, LP in the election and called on the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to be circumspect of its role in the poll.

Countering, YIAGA Africa Programmes Director, Mrs Cynthia Mbamalu, in a chat with Vanguard said the group is non-partisan and is not working for any party or candidate.

However, the PDP group alleged that the election monitoring group has a close affinity with the Deputy Governorship Candidate of LP, Tony Nwulu.

It claimed that YIAGA Africa has concluded plans to sway votes in favour of the LP in PDP strongholds across the state.

To achieve this, it said the election observer group “has mobilised personnel and resources across the state, to canvass for votes for the LP.

“The intention is to deploy the Parallel Voter Tabulation, PVT, system in favour of the Labour Party.”

Nwogu, in a statement, said his group has already informed the INEC of the development and urged the electoral body to prevent partisan monitoring groups, including YIAGA Africa from compromising the credibility of the election.

“We have credible information that YIAGA Aftica has a close relationship with the LP in Imo State and as such, the party intends to use this affinity to influence the outcome of the November 11 elections. The deputy governorship candidate of the LP is said to be a friend of one of the promoters of YIAGA and will want to exploit this relationship to influence the outcome of the election in their observation reports and intervention activities.

“The PDP, as one of the strong contenders in the election cannot fold its arms in silence and watch this happen. We have informed the INEC of this development and we are ready to take it further if INEC did not act on our report” he said. “As a political party, we are out to win this election and if one of the observer groups wants to pitch a tent with a particular political party, in the course of the conduct of the poll, we must call them out while seeking further redress by legitimate means,” he added.

We’re not partisan– YIAGA Africa

Picking holes in the allegations, Mrs Cynthia Mbamalu said: “Yiaga Africa is a non-partisan civil society organisation supporting sustainable democracy and development in Africa. With a vision of a people-driven democratic and developed Africa, the organisation focuses on Elections, citizen engagement, Legislative Engagement, Digital Democracy and support for democratic processes in Africa.

“Under its elections programme, Yiaga Africa deploys the ‘Watching the vote’ initiative which is a non-partisan citizens observation initiative that leverages technological tools and statistical principles to promote electoral integrity. “Accordingly, Yiaga Africa’s Watching the Vote currently deploys the ‘Process and Results Verification for Transparency, PRVT’ methodology (formerly called the Parallel Vote Tabulation) to observe the election. This is a proven election-day observation methodology deployed in over 50 countries across the world. This observation methodology has been deployed in Nigeria since the 2011 general elections. Yiaga Africa has managed this methodology in Nigeria since the 2017 Ondo governorship election and has deployed the PRVT in all off-cycle and Presidential elections since then with the latest being the 2023 general elections. “For the Imo and Kogi states governorship election, Yiaga Africa is duly accredited by INEC to observe the process. In Imo state, Long term observers were deployed in September 2023 across the 27 LGAs ahead of the election to observe the pre-election environment. On election day, using this methodology, non-partisan citizens observers will be deployed across a random sample of polling units in each LGA in both Kogi and Imo states to systematically observe the voting process and counting results.

“With the PRVT, Yiaga Africa will provide accurate data on the election day process and verify if the results announced by INEC is a reflection of the votes cast. Yiaga Africa’s watching the vote focuses on providing accurate information on the elections to citizens and all election stakeholders. The Watching the vote project is driven by data, for all Nigerians and beholden to none.”