Voter inducement emerged as the most widespread integrity concern during Saturday’s Osun State governorship election, with reports or allegations recorded in 14 of the 25 local government areas monitored by the Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development (CJID).
The organisation said the reports, which represented 56 percent of the 25 LGAs covered in its late-afternoon assessment, varied in form and level of verification and should not be treated as confirmed cases of vote-buying across all the affected areas.
CJID, through its Election Analysis Centre, monitored the election using a network of reporters, observers, analysts, researchers, fact-checkers and media practitioners.
The election was conducted across 30 LGAs, 332 wards and 3,763 polling units, with 2,339,233 registered voters. Of this number, 1,906,390, representing 81.5 percent, collected their Permanent Voter Cards.
According to the organisation, allegations of voter inducement were followed by technological challenges, intimidation and security incidents as major concerns during voting.
It said 11 of the 25 LGAs monitored reported difficulties involving the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), connectivity or delays, while six LGAs recorded intimidation or interference involving observers, voters or party agents. Five LGAs reported security-related incidents or tensions.
BVAS delays, but no systemic failure
CJID said BVAS generally functioned during the election, although technical problems were recorded in several locations.
The challenges included facial authentication difficulties, connectivity problems, processing delays and devices requiring restarts.
However, the organisation said the problems largely resulted in delays rather than complete breakdowns.
‘CJID had not recorded evidence of a systemic BVAS failure capable of disrupting voting across the state,’ it said.
It added that the significance of the technical challenges would become clearer during the reconciliation of results, particularly when accreditation figures are compared with the number of ballots cast.
Voting continued beyond the scheduled closing time in some polling units where voters were already on the queue, while other locations had commenced ballot reconciliation, sorting and counting.
CJID said the transition from voting to counting was largely orderly across the locations it monitored.
Election-day violence relatively limited
The security situation was considerably calmer than the violence recorded during the campaign period, according to the organisation.
Despite pre-election concerns over possible flashpoints, CJID said it had not recorded widespread election-day violence by the close of voting.
It, however, reported localised incidents involving threats, assault and interference with journalists, observers and polling agents in Irewole, Atakunmosa West, Ife Central and Ilesa East.
The organisation said such incidents remained significant because they could affect the ability of independent observers and journalists to document the electoral process, particularly during counting and collation.
Alleged payments of up to N50,000
The most widespread concern was possible voter inducement.
CJID said reports from Iwo and Ilesa East included allegations of payments ranging from N20,000 to N50,000 per voter, while its reporters in Boluwaduro and Ola-Oluwa observed voters discussing alleged payments.
In Irewole, a reporter reportedly overheard an individual asking voters whether they had collected their money.
CJID said the geographic spread of the reports made voter inducement a significant issue in assessing the integrity of the election, while stressing that the individual reports remained at different stages of verification.
Attention shifts to collation
With voting largely completed, CJID said its monitoring had shifted to the reconciliation, counting and collation of results.
It said observers would be assessing whether accreditation figures correspond with ballots cast, whether used, rejected and unused ballots are properly reconciled and whether party agents can observe the counting process.
It also said polling-unit results must be accurately documented before transmission to collation centres.
Early disagreements over ballot validity were reported in Ejigbo, although CJID said such disputes did not in themselves constitute evidence of irregularity.
The organisation said how such disputes are resolved and documented would become increasingly important as the results move through the collation process.
Fake results, AI content pose new risk
CJID also identified misinformation as a growing concern as the election moves into the results phase.
Of seven election-related claims it had verified by the time of its assessment, three were found to be true, three false and one unproven.
The claims covered alleged candidate withdrawals, imported voters, arrests of suspected political thugs, rigging, voter inducement, violence and the alleged snatching of electoral materials.
The organisation also detected manipulated content, including AI-generated images presented as evidence of events purportedly occurring during the election.
It warned that genuine developments, unverified allegations and fabricated content could circulate simultaneously during collation.
CJID said it would continue monitoring fabricated results, altered result sheets, premature victory claims and misleading representations of events.
It said while the basic mechanics of voting functioned across most monitored locations and the election avoided widespread violence or systemic BVAS failure, concerns over voter inducement, localised intimidation and procedural consistency remained.
‘The credibility of the eventual result will depend on whether accreditation and ballot figures reconcile, polling-unit results are accurately documented, party agents and observers can scrutinise the process, disputes are transparently resolved, and results remain consistent as they move through successive levels of collation,’ it said.