DIGITAL access concerns and technical glitches have been detected on the websites of some political parties contesting the Osun State governorship election scheduled for Saturday, August 15, according to a preliminary monitoring report by the Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD).
The report, signed by CITAD’s Executive Director, Engr. Y. Z. Ya’u, and released on Friday, said CITAD’s Artificial Intelligence-based ‘PAWSOM-Monitor’ conducted tens of thousands of checks on the digital platforms of 15 participating political parties between August 8 and 12 as part of efforts to assess digital rights, website accessibility, and possible data and privacy breaches ahead of the election.
CITAD said the monitoring initiative was designed to determine whether political parties and their candidates are enjoying equal digital access and fair opportunities, particularly in relation to their websites and social media platforms.
The organisation also said the pilot project is intended to provide a framework that could be deployed during the 2027 general elections.
According to the report, PAWSOM-Monitor conducted 31,763 checks on the websites of the 15 political parties between August 8 and 9. Of these, 25,287 checks were successful, while 6,476 failed for technical reasons.
The overall digital-risk assessment during that period was rated 41 out of 100, which CITAD classified as moderate.
A further 21,644 checks were conducted and analysed on August 12. The latest assessment showed that most of the monitored party websites remained accessible and operational, although several were found to have technical anomalies.
CITAD said 12 party websites were confirmed ‘operational’, while four were classified as ‘operational with anomalies’.
APM website records zero successful checks
The website of the Allied Peoples Movement (APM) is reportedly the only one classified as unreachable from the monitoring server; returning an “ISP_block_detected” error in all three verification attempts conducted by PAWSOM-Monitor.
The website recorded no successful checks during the verification period.
However, CITAD cautioned against interpreting the finding as proof that the APM website had been deliberately blocked or censored.
According to CITAD, the result only established that the website was inaccessible from the monitoring server’s vantage point and would require independent verification before any conclusion could be drawn about possible external interference.
“PAWSOM-Monitor therefore does not classify the observations as confirmed cases of censorship or deliberate digital-rights violations at this stage,” the report said.
CITAD explained that its methodology requires human review and additional verification before a disruption can be attributed to an external actor.
PRP, ADP Websites Show Anomalies
The Peoples Redemption Party (PRP) website was also flagged for technical anomalies despite being accessible during all three final verification attempts.
The site was independently accessed by CITAD monitors and was consequently classified as “Operational With Anomalies.” The organisation said the website requires further technical review.
The Action Democratic Party (ADP) website similarly remained accessible during all three final checks but recorded DNS differences in two of the attempts. It was therefore also classified as operational with anomalies and flagged for further investigation.
The latest monitoring exercise further identified the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) as having websites operating with anomalies, said CITAD, adding that the two parties had not been affected in the earlier assessment but were included in the anomaly category during the latest exercise.
No Evidence Yet of Deliberate Interference
Despite the technical problems identified, CITAD stressed that the preliminary findings do not establish that any political party’s website was deliberately censored, blocked or targeted by an external actor.
The observed instances of website unavailability, degraded performance and DNS irregularities, CITAD said, could have resulted from several factors, including Internet Service Provider restrictions, hosting problems, domain or DNS configuration issues, or other technical difficulties.
“The present evidence is insufficient to determine whether these conditions resulted from deliberate external interference, Internet Service Provider (ISP) restrictions, problems with hosting or domain configuration, or other technical factors,” the report stated.
CITAD urged caution in interpreting the findings, particularly because website accessibility can be affected by technical conditions that are unrelated to government or political interference.
Parties Urged to Investigate Technical Problems
The organisation recommended that affected parties, particularly APM, PRP and ADP, immediately conduct technical reviews of their websites and domain and DNS configurations.
It also advised the parties to engage their hosting providers, domain registrars and Internet Service Providers where necessary to establish the causes of the reported accessibility problems and DNS anomalies.
CITAD further recommended independent verification of the affected websites before any determination is made regarding possible external interference.
The monitoring initiative comes at a critical point in the Osun election cycle, with voters set to go to the polls on Saturday to elect the state’s next governor.
CITAD said it would continue monitoring the digital environment and publish updates on a daily basis.
The organisation described PAWSOM-Monitor as a pilot initiative aimed at expanding election monitoring beyond traditional political and electoral activities to include the digital environment, where political parties increasingly depend on websites, social media and digital communication channels to reach voters.
The broader objective, according to the report, is to identify potential barriers to digital participation and ensure that political actors have equal opportunities to communicate with citizens without unjustified restrictions or interference.
