Mr Ezenwa Nwagwu, Board member, YIAGA Africa who made this known in a statement, said that the group deployed PVT to assess the credibility of the Sept. 19, Governorship poll in Edo.

Nwagwu said that the group, through its `Watching The Vote  (WTV )citizens movement’, had deployed 500 observers to monitor the election.

“Based on reports from 96 per cent  (241 of 250) of sampled polling units, YIAGA Africa’s statistical analysis shows that the APC should receive between 39.1 per cent  and 46.3 per cent of the votes.

“The PDP should receive between 52.5 per cent  and 59.7 per cent  of the votes, while no other party will receive more than one per cent  of the vote share.

“INEC’s official result for the 2020 Edo State gubernatorial election is consistent with the YIAGA Africa WTV estimate.

“Had the official results been changed at the ward, LGA or state collation centres, the official results would not have fallen within the YIAGA Africa WTV estimated ranges,” Nwagwu said.
Nwagwu said  because  the official results fell within the estimated ranges, governorship contestants, parties, and voters should have confidence in INEC’s official results for the election because it reflected the ballots cast at polling units.

He said that it was  important to highlight that the counting process at polling units was transparent and included representatives from the two political parties that received the most votes.

He said that YIAGA Africa PVT result revealed that INEC’s official results for turnout and rejected ballots were also consistent with its WTV estimates.

He said that  YIAGA Africa was able to estimate that turnout was 27.4 per cent  with a margin of error of ±2.1 per cent (between 25.3 per cent and 29.5 per cent), while INEC’s official turnout was 25 per cent .

He said that YIAGA Africa estimated rejected ballots were 1.8 per cent with a margin of error of ± 0.6 per cent  (between 1.2 per cent and 2.4 per cent) while INEC’s official result for rejected ballots was 2.3 per cent .

WTV is an advanced election observation methodology that employs well-established statistical principles and sophisticated information technology to provide timely and accurate information on conduct of elections.