Osun Guber: Educate voters on new electoral innovations — Yiaga Africa charges journalists

A civil society organisation and election observer, Yiaga Africa, has urged journalists to educate voters in Osun State on the new electoral innovations to be deployed by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, during Saturday’s governorship election.

Samson Itodo, Executive Director of Yiaga Africa, gave the charge in Osogbo on Wednesday at a workshop organised for journalists on Election Results Management.

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Itodo said one of the new innovations introduced under the 2026 Electoral Act was the electronic uploading and backup of election results from polling units through the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, BVAS.

According to him, “the innovation, known as e-EC8A, allows the Presiding Officer, PO, at a polling unit to electronically upload the result recorded on the physical INEC Form EC8A onto the BVAS.”

He said the process was new and had never been deployed during an election in Osun State, making voter education particularly important ahead of Saturday’s poll.

Itodo said voters could raise objections or seek clarification at polling units when the new procedure was being implemented, adding that journalists had an important role to play in explaining the process to the electorate.

He urged journalists to “monitor Presiding Officers during the uploading of results to ensure that the figures entered electronically on the BVAS corresponded with those recorded on the physical EC8A result sheet.”

Itodo also said “voters should be properly accredited with their Permanent Voter Cards, PVCs. Anyone who had not been accredited should not be allowed to vote.”

He advised voters to inspect the BVAS machines before accreditation and voting commenced to ascertain that the devices had not been pre-loaded with voters’ accreditation information.

According to him, “Presiding Officers are required by law to respond to requests from voters to inspect the BVAS before accreditation and voting begin at polling units.”

Itodo urged voters to “ensure that Presiding Officers displayed the polling unit results publicly by pasting the completed EC60E form on the wall, in accordance with provisions of the electoral law.”

He added that results from each polling unit were also expected to be uploaded to INEC’s Election Result Viewing Portal, IReV, which is accessible to members of the public, allowing citizens to view results uploaded from polling units.