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In short: INEC publishes the final list of candidates for each office on its website before every election and in a national newspaper. The list gives each candidate's name, sex, party, and the office being contested. To find women on the list, open the state page for the election, search the column headed Sex, and note the row for each woman candidate. The list is final: a name that appears on the published list is on the ballot, and a name that does not appear is not.
INEC publishes two lists for each election. The first is the list of nominated candidates, released shortly after the party nomination window closes. The second is the final list of candidates, released at least thirty days before the election. The final list is the one that matches the ballot paper. A candidate whose name is on the nominated list but not on the final list does not appear on the ballot.
The final list appears in three places. First, on the INEC website, under the page headed Elections, then the subpage for the election. Second, in a national newspaper with wide circulation, on the date INEC announces. Third, at the INEC state office for the state in which the election is held, on the notice board. A reader without internet access uses the second or third. A reader with internet access uses the first and can download the list as a PDF file.
The list is in a table. Each row is one candidate. The columns are name, sex, party, age, and office. To find women, open the list in a PDF reader and search the word Female. Every row with Female in the Sex column is a woman on the ballot. Note the office and the state. For a full count of women per state, open the list for each state and count the rows marked Female. Write the count in a notebook. The number of women on the ballot in each state is the record WATAG publishes.
The list shows candidates, not winners. To know which women won, the reader needs the election result, which INEC publishes separately after each election. The result page names the winner for each office. A woman on the ballot who does not appear as a winner on the result page did not take the seat. The candidate list and the result page are two separate documents, both published by INEC.
The count per state is a public record. WATAG publishes the count for each election cycle and keeps the file for each state. A reader who needs the count for her state writes to info@watag.com.ng and asks for the file. WATAG sends the file. The count is also used in WATAG training, where participants practise reading the candidate list and the result page side by side to see which parties nominated women and which women won.
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