Yiaga Africa Urges INEC to Replicate Osun Governorship Election Model in 2027

By Joseph Sunday 

Yiaga Africa has called on the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to replicate the operational template used in the just-concluded Osun State governorship election during the 2027 general elections.

The Chairman of Yiaga Africa’s 2026 Osun Election Observation Mission, Dr. Asmau Maikudi, made the call on Sunday while presenting the group’s post-election report on the August 15 governorship poll. The observation mission was supported by the European Union, EU.

Maikudi said the conduct of the Osun election showed that INEC has the capacity to attain high operational standards, fully apply the provisions of the Electoral Act 2026, and ensure transparent transmission of results when an election is adequately resourced and under intense scrutiny.

According to her, the challenge before the commission is to scale up the success recorded in Osun across the country’s 176,000 polling units and 36 states in 2027.

“The task for INEC is therefore to convert the lessons from Osun into institutional standards. That means strengthening quality assurance for sensitive materials; resolving inconsistencies in voter data; standardizing implementation of downloadable PVCs and other provisions of the Electoral Act 2026,” she said.

She further called on the Commission to improve the transparency of the INEC Results Viewing Portal, IReV, and to institutionalize prompt public communication whenever technological or operational failures occur.

Maikudi also urged security agencies to maintain neutrality and intensify enforcement against vote buying, voter intimidation and electoral violence.

Giving further recommendations, the Yiaga Africa chief said INEC should issue binding and uniform guidelines to presiding officers on the acceptance of downloadable Permanent Voter Cards, PVCs, for voter accreditation.

She also recommended a comprehensive post-election technical audit of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, BVAS, to ascertain the causes of failures recorded during the exercise and to strengthen device testing, maintenance and rapid response technical support to minimize disruptions in 2027.

The group also called for the publication of the causes of BVAS authentication failures recorded during voter accreditation, alongside the remedial measures to be deployed ahead of the next general elections.