Yiaga Africa Flags Discrepancies in Ballot Papers of Ekiti Governorship Poll

Yiaga Africa Flags Discrepancies in Ballot Papers, Result Sheets Ahead of Ekiti Governorship Poll

ADO-EKITI, Election observation group Yiaga Africa has raised the alarm over mismatches between ballot papers, result sheets, and the final list of candidates deployed for Saturday’s Ekiti governorship election, cautioning that the discrepancies risk confusing voting and the collation of results.

In a preliminary statement signed by Aisha Abdullahi, chair of Yiaga Africa’s 2026 Ekiti Election Observation Mission, and the organisation’s executive director, Samson Itodo, the group said its observers found inconsistencies in the number of political parties listed across key materials deployed by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

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The group reported that the Form EC8A result sheets used at polling units provide space for 15 political parties, while ballot papers in circulation list 19 parties. By contrast, INEC’s final candidate list, updated on 18 June and published on its website, shows only 14 parties fielded candidates in the race.

Yiaga Africa attributed the mismatch to a combination of court rulings and administrative adjustments that reshaped party and candidate participation after INEC’s initial list of 12 candidates, published in January.

The group said that as of 8:30 a.m. on election day, 96 per cent of its observers deployed across 250 randomly sampled polling units were at their assigned posts, and that early findings had already turned up the inconsistencies between ballot papers, result sheets and the published candidate list.

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According to the organisation, the mismatches carry practical risks for vote recording. Where result sheets list parties absent from the ballot paper, presiding officers may end up recording zero votes for parties that voters never saw. Conversely, votes cast for parties missing from the result sheet could complicate recording, reconciliation, and collation.

Yiaga Africa called on INEC to urgently clarify the final list of parties and candidates and to account for the differences between the ballot papers, result sheets, and its earlier announcements. The group also urged the commission to issue clear, written guidance to presiding officers and collation officials on completing result sheets in a manner consistent with relevant court judgments and electoral regulations.