Ahead of the September 19 Governorship elections in Edo State, Yiaga Africa; a citizen-led movement committed to credible election under the Watching The Vote (WTV) has deployed its cohort of 44 Master Trainers across all 18 Local Government Areas in Edo state for the training of over 500 Polling unit observers and 24 roving observers.
The Executive Director, Samson Itodo in a press statement explained that the training of 18 Collation Center observers who will deploy to all 18 Local Government Area collation centres to observe, document and report the process at the collation level.
He said Yiaga Africa’s cohort of 44 Master Trainers with a deluge of experiences from their involvement in the Anambra, Ekiti, Osun, Kogi and Bayelsa gubernatorial elections and the 2019 Presidential elections, stepped down the training to the local government supervisors and the polling unit observers.
According him, the training held from 10th – 13th September 2020 and provided the rudiments of election observation and reporting.
He said Yiaga Africa observers were trained on the essentials of election observation beginning from understanding the Election Day process as provided in the Independent National Electoral Commission’s manuals and election guidelines, election day deployment, to the WTV observation methodology, using the observation forms.
He said the observers were also exposed to the guidelines and principles of election observation in line with the global principles of Global Network for Domestic Election Monitors.
“Thus observers were also trained on how to track and report adherence to the COVID-19 prevention protocols at the polling units and LGA results collation centers. In ensuring citizen observers adhere to COVID-19 safety guidelines, Yiaga Africa has provided facemasks to all polling unit observers to ensure access to the polling units for observation.
