Yiaga africa says it is deploying 328 trained observers and an advanced citizen observation methodology – Process and Results Verification for Transparency (PRVT), in the November 11 Imo governorship poll.
The director of programmes of the group, Miss Cynthia Mbamalu, made the disclosure at an interactive session with civil society organizations (CSOs) and newsmen in Owerri on Thursday.
Mbamalu, who said that the PRVT had been deployed in over 50 countries, said the observation methodology does not only focus on vote tabulation but transparency of electoral process.
“The PRVT leverages two important rules: statistics and technology.
“Statistics help us to randomly select polling units across the 27 local government areas.
“In Imo and Kogi, we have selected 300 sampled polling units across the states and we have recruited and trained our observers to observe the elections.
“They are to observe the process from the arrival of materials and personnel to the opening of the poll, the conduct of the polls and the results,” she said.
Mbamalu further said that the methodology would help to observe compliance of the poll to INEC electoral guidelines.
She said a database would also be set up in Abuja to receive and analyses results from the elections, which would be sent in by the observers.
“The CSOs and media are human rights defenders because what they do is to observe the process and ensure that the right things are done.
“We have the responsibility to redesign and give hope of democracy in our country and ensure that the people’s voices are heard and reflected in governance,” she said.
Mbamalu urged the Police to ensure efficient and deliberate deployment of personnel, driven by intelligence, to six local government areas of the state, which she described as volatile.
The areas, according to her, include Oru East, Oru West, Okigwe, Orlu, Orsu and Ehime Mbano, which have major security threats.
She said: “If citizens are not confident of their right to vote, the right to be voted for and, free and fair atmosphere, in terms of security, it limits their confidence and fundamental right to vote.
“We want security deployed to protect the people and not to intimidate them.
“The personnel should be professional and must understand the importance of human rights policing that seeks to protect the people first,” she said.
While noting that INEC had commenced training of the ad hoc staff for the poll, she underscored the need to ensure that only the trained ad hoc staff are deployed to the polling units.
Mbamalu said the meeting was organized to discuss concerns of CSOs and the media in the election with a view to fostering common grounds for the coverage of the poll.
“We believe that for these elections to be truly transparent and fair, we need to ensure that there is due compliance with the electoral guidelines and that the process is not just transparent but seen to be so,” she said.
