Yiaga Africa raises alarm over ballot and result sheet issues in Ekiti election

Election watchdog Yiaga Africa has pointed out problems with the ballot papers, result sheets, and candidate lists for the Ekiti governorship election held on Saturday. They warned that these issues could cause confusion during voting and counting of results.

In a statement released on Saturday, Aisha Abdullahi, chair of Yiaga Africa’s 2026 Ekiti Election Observation Mission, and Samson Itodo, the executive director, detailed their findings. They noted that observers reported differences in the number of political parties listed on key election materials used by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

The group explained that the Form EC8A polling unit result sheets have spaces for 15 political parties. But the ballot papers being used show the names of 19 parties.

According to INEC’s final list of candidates, updated on June 18 and published online, only 14 political parties had candidates for this election. Yiaga Africa said these discrepancies likely arose from court decisions and other administrative changes that affected party and candidate participation after INEC first published a list of 12 candidates in January.

The organization pointed out that not all changes were shown consistently across all election materials. "As of 8:30 a.m., 96 percent of the observers from our 250 randomly sampled polling units were at their assigned locations to observe the election,” the group said.

Yiaga Africa’s early findings highlighted the differences between the ballot papers, result sheets, and the candidates' list from INEC. The group warned that these inconsistencies could lead to uncertainty during voting and counting of results.

They explained that if result sheets include parties not listed on the ballot papers, presiding officers might need to mark zero votes for parties voters did not see. On the other hand, if voters cast ballots for parties not shown on the result sheet, issues could occur during recording and collation of results.

"Yiaga Africa, therefore, calls on INEC to: 1. Publicly clarify, without delay, the final list of parties and candidates, and explain any differences between the ballot papers, result sheets, and earlier announcements,” the statement continued.

The group also urged INEC to provide clear written instructions to presiding officers and collation officials on how to fill out result sheets according to relevant court rulings and election rules.