An election monitoring group, Yiaga Africa, has recommended the prosecution of those engaged in vote buying and selling during the just concluded governorship election in Ondo State.

Also, the election monitoring group asked the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to take deliberate steps to protect the secrecy of the ballot and enforce its electoral guidelines, especially as it relates to the secrecy of the ballot.

In its Process and Results Verification for Transparency (PRVT) on the governorship election, the Civil Society Organization said seven per cent of INEC officials were unprofessional and partisan in polling units.

Also, it said security personnel were unprofessional and partisan in seven per cent of the polling units visited by the election monitoring group. It said it was discovered that in 11 per cent of the polling units, it was possible to see how a voter’s ballot was marked before it was put in the ballot box.

The Chairman 2024 Ondo Election Mission, Ezenwa Nwgwu, said that based on reports from 286 of 300 (95%) sampled polling units, Yiaga Africa’s statistical analysis showed that the All Progressives Congress (APC) received between 72.1percent of the total vote cast.

According to him, “Therefore, the PRVT findings reveal that the results announced by INEC for all 18 LGAs are consistent with the PRVT estimates for the governorship election in Ondo state. Had the official results been changed at the ward, LGA, or state collation centres, they would not have fallen within the Yiaga Africa WTV estimated ranges.

“Because the official results fall within the estimated ranges, governorship contestants, parties, and voters should have confidence that the official results for the 2024 Ondo governorship election reflect the ballots cast at polling units.

However, Yiaga Africa recommended that INEC should take deliberate steps to protect the secrecy of the ballot and enforce its electoral guidelines especially as it relates to the secrecy of the ballot.

He said: “INEC should ensure that the BVAS is consistently updated and upgraded to ensure optimal functionality. INEC should ensure that the ad-hoc officials are properly trained on disability provisions for each election.

“This includes ensuring the polling units are set up in a manner that enables access for voters with ‘disability, the magnifying glasses and braille ballot guide are provided to voters who need them, and the form EC 40H is duly completed in every election.

“Political parties and candidates should refrain from this persistent and unacceptable culture of impunity and this ugly trend of buying votes and looking for ways to undermine the integrity of the electoral process.”