A civil society group, Youth Initiative for Advocacy, Growth, and Advancement (YIAGA AFRICA) has disclosed it will deploy 250 observers across the 1,804 polling units in Bayelsa State for the November 16 governorship elections.
YIAGA Africa, which stated this during a roundtable parley with journalists in Yenagoa, yesterday, called on newsmen to leverage on accurate data from its Watching The Vote (WTV) project in reporting election-related issues in the state.
YIAGA AFRICA’s WTV Project Director, Cynthia Mbamalu, quoted by its Media Officer, Moshood Isah, in a statement, explained that WTV is a comprehensive observation of the electoral process.
She said 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 to build early warning systems to prevent or mitigate electoral violence,” she said