Yiaga Africa said its  pre-election indicators show that next month’s governorship election in Edo State will witness low voter turnout while being competitive.

It also expressed concern over the inducement of voters by politicians in the state ahead of the poll.

Edo State has a total number of 2,629,025 registered voters for the September 21 governorship election. The major parties in the contest are the ruling PDP, major opposition APC and the Labour Party, which hopes to pull an upset.

However, Yiaga Africa, in its Watch The Vote (WTV) report for the election, said regardless of the political climate, there is a worrying degree of insecurity with largely unreported regular kidnappings across  communities in the state.

“In addition, the level of cultist activities resulting in violent deaths further leaves the state vulnerable, especially with the likelihood of political utilisation of cultism to fight political opponents. Notably, the insecurity in the state may impact the quality of voters’ engagement in the pre-election phase, INEC preparatory activities, voter turnout and the quality of the elections.

“According to the initial analysis of Yiaga Africa’s violence monitoring, the several security crises ahead of the Edo election like violent incidents, cult conflicts, kidnappings, and other criminal activity have limited civic and voter engagement and other election-related activities that typically take place before elections. Yiaga Africa Pre-election indicators predict that although it is a competitive race, the election will witness low voter turnout.”

On voter inducement, the report said similar to the 2020 Edo governorship elections, WTV findings reveal the inducement of voters by politicians in the state.

It added,“Yiaga Africa’s LTOs witnessed or heard party loyalists giving gifts and/or cash to voters at meetings and campaign rallies in an attempt to sway them. These incidents were especially observed or heard about in the Uselu market, Egor LGA, where the APC and PDP parties gave cash gifts to market women during their campaign trips, ranging from N1000 to N2000.

“Similarly, in the Amiebonkhian community of Esan North East LGA, women who attended the campaign gathering were given wrappers by PDP campaigners. The PDP campaigners also gave some store owners shirts, caps, umbrellas, and as much as N2000 in the Ubiaja community in Esan South East LGA,” the report stated.