A new report released by the Kimpact Development Initiative (KDI) has uncovered significant discrepancies in the vote counts of the 2024 governorship elections in Edo and Ondo states.
The findings raise serious concerns about the transparency of the electoral process, particularly regarding the integrity of the vote collation and data reporting.
The report, titled ‘Ballot Integrity Report for the 2024 Edo and Ondo State Governorship Elections’, reveals inconsistencies between the figures recorded on the Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) Election Result Viewing (IReV) portal and those officially declared by INEC at the state collation centres.
These discrepancies include instances where the All Progressives Congress (APC) was shown to have received an additional 40,871 votes, while the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) lost 10,680 votes when comparing the IReV data to INEC’s official results.
The report highlights the discrepancies in the vote tallies in various Local Government Areas (LGAs) in Edo State.
For example, in Akoko Edo LGA, the APC was shown to have received 9,912 more votes in INEC’s declared results compared to the IReV figures.
In Oredo LGA, APC’s vote count was increased by 13,393 in the official tally. Conversely, the PDP’s votes were reported lower in the INEC results than on IReV, with Ikpoba/Okha showing a shortfall of 4,898 votes, and Oredo, 4,223 fewer votes.
“The overall vote count discrepancies between IReV and INEC results show that APC had 40,871 votes more in the INEC-declared results compared to IReV, while PDP had 10,680 fewer votes in the INEC-declared results compared to IReV,” the report noted.
Though these discrepancies did not alter the final outcome of the election, the report suggests that they did significantly affect the margin of victory.
In the race between APC’s Monday Okpebholo and PDP’s Asue Ighodalo, Okpebholo emerged victorious with 291,667 votes, while Ighodalo garnered 247,274 votes.
However, the report points out that the official margin of victory declared by INEC was 44,393 votes, compared to a much smaller margin of 8,064 votes based on IReV data.
The report further highlights that 22 polling units in Edo State had uploaded Form EC40, indicating elections were either canceled or did not take place.
This accounted for 13,942 registered voters, with 11,917 Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) collected. Given that the number of canceled votes exceeded the margin of lead based on IReV data, the report suggests that the election might have met the conditions for a supplementary election under electoral guidelines.
In addition, the report found discrepancies in the number of registered voters recorded in Form EC8A at specific polling units in Edo and Ondo states, raising concerns about the accuracy of voter registration records and the overall integrity of the electoral process.
In Edo, discrepancies were noted in areas such as the Enwan/Atte/Ikpeshi/Egbibele Registration Area (RA) in Akoko-Edo LGA and the Ogida/Use RA in Egor LGA. In Ondo, polling units in Oke Aro/Uro I RA in Akure South LGA and Iluabo/Eleyewo/Bolorunduro RA in Akure North LGA also experienced mismatches.
The KDI report also highlighted that 141 polling units in Edo and 87 polling units in Ondo had discrepancies in registration numbers.
At the state collation centres, there were inconsistencies in the final tally, with Edo State showing 18,340 fewer registered voters than the pre-election figures, while Ondo experienced similar mismatches.
A significant concern raised by the report was the unaccounted ballots. In Edo State, 28,083 ballots were found to be missing,
while in Ondo, 12,931 ballots could not be accounted for. These missing ballots cast further doubt on the credibility of the election results and raise questions about the integrity of the electoral process.
KDI’s Executive Director, Bukola Idowu, who addressed journalists after the presentation of the report, called for immediate action from INEC to address the discrepancies and irregularities identified in the report.
He stressed the need for INEC to take the necessary steps to ensure a more transparent process, especially in the upcoming governorship elections in Anambra, Ekiti, and Osun, leading up to the 2027 general elections.
Despite acknowledging the improvements made by INEC in uploading results to the IReV platform, Idowu emphasized that these discrepancies must be addressed to restore public confidence in the electoral process.
In a separate interview with The Guardian, Professor Adele Jinadu, a political science expert, suggested that while some inconsistencies are inevitable in complex electoral processes, the key issue is whether such discrepancies are intentional or incidental.
He stressed that it is crucial for INEC to review any contested results and for citizens to actively monitor elections at the polling unit level to safeguard the integrity of the electoral process.do State
