New report highlights mismatched votes, tabulation errors in 2025 Anambra governorship poll
Kimpact Development Initiative (KDI), a civil society group interested in credible elections, stated on Wednesday that the 2025 Anambra State governorship election was characterised by mismatched registered voters, arithmetic errors in vote tabulation, missing/unrecorded ballots, and overvoting. It also stated it tracked over N19 billion spent by political parties and their candidates during the election. However, the Executive Director of KDI, Bukola Idowu, noted that the election irregularities highlighted in the report did not affect the overall outcome of the election. “It did not affect the election because the margin of lead was over 300,000,” he said, as he emphasised that the group’s findings were “important for procedural purposes.” Mr Idowu said this in Abuja while presenting KDI’s report titled ‘Key Lessons from the 2025 Anambra Governorship Election’. Mr Idowu presenting the findings of mismatched registered voters The reports comes about four months after the election was held. The governorship election took place on 8 November 2025. Governor Charles Soludo of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) was re-elected, polling 422,664 votes to defeat his closest challenger and candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Nicholas Ukachukwu, who scored 99,445 votes. Speaking during the electoral summit, the Senior Governance Adviser, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), Chris Okeke, outlined the importance of the KDI’s findings. Mr Okeke said it is valuable to “Translate the evidence into practical action in the upcoming 2027 general elections.” Senior Governance Adviser, FCDO, Chris Okeke Election irregularities Mr Idowu identified irregularities, including discrepancies in the election results declared. “Number of registered voters on Form EC8A did not match INEC’s official pre-elections figures,” Mr Idowu said. He added that this was observed in 412 polling units. He also said significant discrepancies emerged in voter data: INEC initially reported 2,802,790 registered voters, yet the IReV portal showed 2,734,344, while a third figure of 2,788,864 was announced at the collation centre. While showing examples of such occurrences in some of the polling units, Mr Idowu urged INEC to customise all details, including the number of registered voters on Form EC8A (polling unit election results sheet), to avoid such errors. Similarly, there were arithmetic errors in vote tabulation in 635 polling units, 13,428 missing ballots and overvoting in 443 polling units, the group said. Overvoting affected 53,666 valid votes, according him, adding that the discoveries affected APGA’s 37,294 votes and APC’s 9,160 votes. He said this is because of the cancellation of voting in polling units where overvoting occurred. While the incidents did not affect the overall result because of the margin, Mr Idowu said, “They raise important considerations regarding the accountability, integrity and credibility of the electoral process.” The KDI’s report aligned with PREMIUM TIMES analysis of Anambra’s governorship elections. At some polling units, a more discreet form of vote buying was observed. Voters were asked to write down their bank details in a small notebook being passed around. On inspection, the notebook contained full names, phone numbers, and account numbers of voters. Mr Idowu commended INEC for its prompt uploading of results on the IReV portal. According to him, by midnight, 5,711 polling unit results were uploaded, an improvement over the Ondo elections held in 2024. Election security While presenting the KDI’s report, Mr Idowu noted that between 1 January and 7 November 2025, there were 31 incidents of electoral violence. He said 70 monitors were deployed during the period to all Anambra’s Local Government Areas (LGA) and neighbouring states to checkmate the pre-elections atmosphere. Cross-section of participants at the Electoral Summit The group recorded two fatalities. According to Mr Idowu, “Pre-election violence was driven more by structural criminal activities than electoral competition.” On election day, there were 35 cases of violence, with Oyi and Njikoka LGAs recording the most incidents: 14 and 5, respectively. The perpetrators were said to include party agent, voters, party thugs, party members, and security agents. The victims of the violence included Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) officials, Ad-Hoc staff, party members/agents, and community leaders. However, Mr Idowu said that with the deployment of over 40,000 security operatives, it “Confined the spread of election-related violence” in the Anambra governorship elections. Over N10.9 billion election day spending tracked The group used a parallel estimation technique and deployed 50 community-based monitors between June and November 2025 to track the expenses made by both political parties and candidates during the election cycle. According to the group’s findings, the amount of money spent on campaigns by political parties and candidates is not commensurate with the known figure received from sales of forms and donations received. Over N19.6 billion was spent during the election and campaign activities. The group said it tracked N1.4 billion raised by APGA, including donations, and N350 million from sales of forms by the APC. However, it did not receive news of donations to the APC. The group added that N8 billion was spent on campaign activities by political parties. It however said that over N10.9billion was expended on election day. Total spending by APGA/Mr Soludo was over N3.4 billion, Labour Party/Mr Moghalu, N2.3 billion, and APC/Mr Ukachukwu, N1.9 billion. This exceeded the N1 billion threshold the Electoral Act 2022 stipulated for political parties, Mr Idowu said. However, 42 per cent of the total expenses were incurred by third parties. For instance, PREMIUM TIMES reported that during the campaign, a powerful coalition of prominent businessmen, industrialists, and politicians rallied behind Mr Soludo, providing the financial leverage as well. Way forward Commenting on the general issues raised, the Resident Electoral Commissioner of INEC in Anambra State, Queen-Elizabeth Agwu, called for collaboration among members of the society to tackle some of the irregularities. Resident Electoral Commissioner, Anambra State, Queen-Elizabeth Agwu Mrs Agwu urged citizens to report election irregularities. She pointed out that many NYSC members are increasingly declining ad-hoc election roles due to security fears and other systemic challenges. The chairperson of the Africa Electoral Justice Network (AEJN), Boissie Henry, called for structured collaboration within institutional bodies and stakeholders. Chairperson, Africa Electoral Justice Network, Boissie Henry Also, the retired judge said elections must provide equal opportunities for voters and candidates. He said, “Elections are not merely political and administrative events but a constitutional test.” Share this: Click to share on X (Opens in new window) X Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window) WhatsApp Click to share on Telegram (Opens in new window) Telegram Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window) LinkedIn Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window) Email Click to print (Opens in new window) Print