A Civil Society and Election Observer Group, YIAGA Africa, has urged journalists to sensitise voters ahead of Saturday’s Osun governorship election on the new innovations the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) will introduce.
The Executive Director of YIAGA Africa, Mr Samson Itodo, made the call at a workshop organised for journalists on “Election Results Management” on Wednesday in Osogbo.
Itodo said one of the new innovations provided for in the 2026 Electoral Act was the electronic uploading and backing up of election results from polling units to the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) through what is known as e-EC8A.
He said the innovation allowed the election result recorded on the INEC result sheet (Form EC8A) to be electronically uploaded by an INEC Presiding Officers (POs) to the BVAS.
Itodo said because the innovation was new and had never been used in the state before, voters might raise objections at polling units, urging journalists to educate the electorate ahead of the election.
He also urged journalists to monitor POs while they upload results from the physical EC8A forms to the BVAS to ensure that the results uploaded were those recorded on the forms.
Itodo said that, based on the provisions of the Electoral Act, only Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) would be used for accreditation, stressing that voters should ensure that anyone who was not accredited was not allowed to vote.
He added that voters should check the BVAS before accreditation commenced to ensure that the machines had not been pre-loaded.
According to him, POs are mandated by law to allow voters to inspect the BVAS before accreditation and voting commence.
Itodo further urged voters to ensure that POs pasted the results of the election from their polling units on the wall using INEC Form EC60E, as stipulated by law.
The YIAGA Africa boss said election results were expected to be uploaded from each polling unit to the INEC Election Results Viewing Portal (IReV), which is accessible to the public for viewing.
