Bayelsa poll: YIAGA Africa tasks media on accurate reporting

Ahead of the November 16th Governorship elections in Bayelsa state, YIAGA AFRICA has called on Journalists in Bayelsa state to leverage on accurate data from its Watching The Vote project in reporting election related issues in the state.

At the round table discussion held in Yenagoa recently, YIAGA AFRICA’s WTV Project Director, Cynthia Mbamalu reiterated the project’s commitment to provide timely information on the election process, starting from the pre-election environment. 

According to her, Watching The Vote is a comprehensive observation of the electoral process which includes the observation of the political party primaries, pre-election environment in all Local government areas and the election day observation which deploys the Parallel Vote Tabulation.

“We just concluded the training of Long-Term Observers from all Local Government Areas in the state who will serve as pre-election observers and will also be recruiting observers from sampled polling units,” she said.  

According to her, Pre-election observers will be observing political party campaigns, Voter education activities by election stakeholders, activities of the electoral commission like distribution of Permanent Voters Card. 

She said the pre-election environment is very crucial as it goes a long way in determining what happens during the election period.

 “We will also be monitoring violent indicators to enable us build early warning systems in order to prevent or mitigate electoral violence”, she said

She further explained that YIAGA AFRICA’s Watching the Vote will be using an advanced election day observation methodology called the Parallel Vote Tabulation (PVT).

She said the PVT is a systematic observation of the voting and counting process at a representative random sample of polling units using statistical principle and information and communication technologies (ICTs) to rapidly transmit observer reports from the Polling Units to a central database. 

Also, the Chairman of the National Union of Journalists, Samuel Numonengi who commended YIAGA AFRICA’s election observation plans while urging journalists to remain professional in the cause of their reportage. 

Similarly Chairperson of the National Association of Women Journalists (NAWOJ), Maria Olodie said, the WTV project is timely as it will help harmonise elections reports by journalists in the state. 

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