Youth Assessors to Monitor INEC’s Compliance With New Electoral Act in Ekiti Poll  

By Rotimi Aleshinloye 

Young Nigerians trained under the Youth Electoral Reform Project (YERP Naija) will monitor INEC’s compliance with key provisions of the Electoral Act 2026 during Saturday’s Ekiti State governorship election. The initiative aims to strengthen electoral accountability and boost youth participation in Nigeria’s democracy.

The project, supported by the National Democratic Institute (NDI) and implemented in the South-West by the New Generation Girls and Women Development Initiative (NIGAWD), will deploy trained legal compliance assessors to selected polling units. Their task: evaluate whether newly enacted electoral reforms are being implemented.

NDI Programme Director, Mr. Ben Agha, told journalists that the project is being executed through six partner organisations across Nigeria’s geopolitical zones to drive youth involvement in democratic processes.

According to Agha, youths involved in YERP Naija had advocated for amendments to the Electoral Act and the Constitution since 2024. Several recommendations were passed by the National Assembly and signed into law by President Bola Tinubu earlier this year.

“Focus has now shifted from advocacy to implementation,” Agha said. The assessors will check compliance by INEC and other stakeholders with the new provisions, particularly the mandatory electronic transmission of election results to the INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV).

NIGAWD Executive Director and South-West Coordinator of the Youth-Led Electoral Reform Project, Mrs. Abimbola Aladejare-Salako, emphasized that youth participation is critical, noting that over 60 per cent of Nigeria’s population is young. “Democracy cannot thrive if the country’s largest demographic remains passive during elections,” she said.

She confirmed that legal compliance assessors will be stationed at polling units during the June 20 governorship election to verify implementation of the Electoral Act 2026. The initiative will be expanded ahead of the 2027 general elections across the South-West.

Participants described the training as empowering. Agbe Tunde said it equipped them to educate peers that “every vote now counts,” while Yewande Babalola said she was inspired to mobilise young people in her community to participate actively in elections and national development.