CJID Raises Vote-Buying Concerns as Osun Election Moves to Collation

The Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development (CJID) has raised concerns over alleged voter inducement and isolated incidents of intimidation as voting ended in the 2026 Osun State governorship election.

In its end-of-voting assessment, released through its Election Analysis Centre, CJID said the election was generally completed across most of the polling units monitored by its network of reporters, observers, analysts, researchers, fact-checkers and media practitioners.

The election was held across 30 Local Government Areas, 332 wards and 3,763 polling units. Of the 2,339,233 registered voters in the state, 1,906,390, representing 81.5 per cent, collected their Permanent Voter Cards.

According to CJID, polling units in most locations transitioned from voting to sorting and counting from about 2:30pm, although voting continued beyond the scheduled closing time in some locations where voters were already on the queue.

The organisation said possible voter inducement was the most frequently reported integrity concern, with allegations recorded in 14 of the 25 LGAs covered by its late-afternoon assessment.

It said the reports varied in form and level of verification, noting that allegations in Iwo and Ilesa East involved payments reportedly ranging from ₦20,000 to ₦50,000 per voter.

“Possible voter inducement emerged as the most frequently reported integrity concern in CJID’s election-day monitoring,” the organisation said.

It, however, cautioned that the reports were at different stages of verification and should not be interpreted as confirmed cases of vote-buying in all the affected LGAs.

CJID also reported BVAS-related challenges in 11 LGAs, including facial authentication difficulties, poor connectivity, processing delays and devices requiring restarts.

The organisation said the technical challenges generally caused delays rather than complete failure of the electoral technology.

“CJID had not recorded evidence of a systemic BVAS failure capable of disrupting voting across the state,” it said, adding that the significance of the reported challenges would become clearer during the reconciliation of accreditation figures and ballots cast.

On security, CJID said election day was considerably calmer than the violence and political tension witnessed during the pre-election period.

However, it reported isolated cases involving threats, assault and interference with journalists, observers, voters and polling agents in parts of Irewole, Atakunmosa West, Ife Central and Ilesa East.

The organisation said such incidents remained significant because they could affect independent monitoring and documentation of the process, particularly during counting and collation.

As counting commenced, CJID said its observers were monitoring the reconciliation of accredited voters and ballots cast, the handling of used, rejected and unused ballots, the participation of party agents and the accurate documentation and transmission of polling-unit results.

It also reported early disagreements over ballot validity in Ejigbo, stressing that such disputes did not by themselves constitute evidence of irregularity but should be transparently resolved and documented.

Meanwhile, CJID’s fact-checking and information-integrity monitoring identified claims concerning candidate withdrawals, alleged importation of voters, arrests of suspected political thugs, election rigging, voter inducement, violence and alleged snatching of electoral materials.

Of seven election-related claims verified at the time of its assessment, three were found to be true, three false, while one remained unproven.

The organisation also warned of the spread of manipulated content, including AI-generated images being presented as evidence of alleged election-day incidents.

It said it would continue monitoring fabricated results, altered result sheets, premature victory claims and misleading information as the collation process progresses.

CJID concluded that the basic mechanics of the election largely functioned across the locations it monitored, with no widespread violence or systemic BVAS failure recorded.

It, however, said concerns around voter inducement, localised intimidation and interference remained important to the overall assessment of the election.

“An election can proceed without widespread violence while still presenting questions around voter choice, observation, procedural consistency and accountability,” CJID said.

The organisation called on the Independent National Electoral Commission, security agencies, political parties and their agents to maintain the relative calm recorded during voting and ensure that counting and collation remain transparent, accessible to accredited observers and free from intimidation or interference.

CJID said it would continue monitoring the results process and election-related information until the conclusion of collation.