According to its chairman, Dr. Hussaini Abdu, the result released by INEC, which saw the incumbent President, Muhammadu Buhari emerging as President-elect, fell within its Parallel Vote Tabulation (PVT) estimated range.
Dr. Hussaini Abdu, who spoke to newsmen today, Wednesday on the group’s Statement on the 2019 Presidential Election Results in Abuja, YIAGA AFRICA’s WTV utilised the PVT methodology; the gold standard citizen observation methodology that uses statistics and ICT.
He said that the group deployed 3,030 observer teams in pairs to a random statistical sample of 1,515 polling units located in every local government area (LGA) and states of the country.
He said that the deployment to a statistical sample of polling units enabled YIAGA AFRICA to independently project the vote shares that each candidate should have received within a narrow range.
“YIAGA AFRICA’s findings show that for the presidential election the All Progressive Congress (APC) should receive between 50.0 per cent and 55.8 per cent of the vote.
“The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) should receive between 41.2 per cent and 47.0 per cent of the vote; these figures are consistent with the official results as just announced by INEC.
“For both APC and PDP the official results fall within the PVT estimated ranges.”
Dr. Hussaini Abdu said that YIAGA AFRICA results statement was based on reports from 1,491 polling units which are 98.4 per cent of sampled polling units, adding that YIAGA AFRICA’s projections were also consistent with the officially announced vote shares for the other 71 parties who contested in the presidential election.
He said that the group’s projections were based on the results announced in the polling units and would have detected any significant manipulation occurring during collation at the ward, local government area, State and national levels.
The chairman said that INEC’s official results for turnout and rejected ballots were also generally consistent with YIAGA AFRICA WTV estimates.
He said that YIAGA AFRICA estimated that turnout was 37.5 per cent with a margin of error between 35.9 per cent and 39.1 per cent and INEC’s official turnout was 35.7 per cent.
He said that similarly YIAGA AFRICA’s estimated rejected ballots were 4.0 per cent with a margin of error of between 3.4 per cent and 4.6 per cent while INEC’s official figure for rejected ballot was 4.5 per cent.
Dr. Hussaini Abdu, however said that the Feb. 23 presidential election was characterized by similar shortcomings that marred previous national elections in Nigeria.
