A Civil Society Organisation (CSO), Centre for Democracy and
Development (CDD) on Thursday said it would deploy a Global Positioning
System (GPS) tracker to monitor the 2019 general elections.
L-R: Shamsudeen Yusuf, Damilola Praiseworth |
Ms Idayat Hassan, CDD director while addressing a news conference on
the centre’s “One-Stop-Shop for Analysis” of the 2019 General
Elections’’, said that the centre would also inaugurate an election app
for effective observation.
Hassan who was represented by Mr Shamsudeen Yusuf, a Senior
Programmes Officer in the organisation, said that the newly developed
GPS-enabled CDD election tracker would be deployed to enable accredited
field observers report on the election process.
“The tracker will also help us track where the observers are reporting from for quality control purposes.
“The tracker is developed in a way that also allows citizens and
journalists to register and report only on incidents on the day of
elections.
“The Centre is also deploying Telerivet – SMS-based platform for
reporting and documenting data relating to Election Day activities.’’
Hassan said that the centre had also concluded its plan to inaugurate
an Election Analysis Centre (EAC) as a “One-Stop-Shop’’ for rigorous
analysis of the 2019 general elections.
She said that the EAC would be located at Fraser Suite, 294 Leventis Close, Central Business District, FCT, Abuja.
According to her, it is aimed at providing accurate and real-time
analysis of events in the build-up to the polls, election day and
post-election period in a more captivating, enriching and systematic
manner.
She said that it would also provide informed analysis grounded in
historical facts and data spanning 1999-2015 general elections,
inclusive of off-cycle polls in the country.
Hassan said that 3,500 trained observers would be deployed to monitor
the elections in all the 36 states, the 774 Local Government Areas
(LGAs) and the 2,642 political wards in the country.
The CDD director said that the observers were being trained to
carefully observe and report back on the accreditation and voting
process, including movement of sensitive materials, opening of units,
setting up of polling units, and accreditation and voting.
She said that the CDD’s EAC would have political scientists,
historians, gender, conflict experts, data analyst and communication
experts who would interrogate pre-election, Election Day and
post-election events from a contemporary and historical lens.
Hassan said that embedded in this analysis centre would be CDD’s fake
news centre, adding that fake news could trigger fear and violence
during election.
This, she said was the reason for CDD’s fact-checking team to spot,
identify, investigate and counter fake news during the elections.
“For the first time in the history of Nigeria, there will be a live
telecast of election analysis by a CSO tagged #Decision2019 on Arise TV
available on DSTV Channel 416, Sky 519 and GoTV Channel 44.’’ she said.
She said the aim was to create a platform for impartial analysis using evidence and data to explain polls to the citizens.
Hassan said that the programme would inform voters about procedural
matters and arrangements for the conduct of the elections, serve as a
non-partisan platform for INEC to communicate its messages to the
electorate.
Mr Damilola Praiseworth, Communications Officer, CDD said that the
centre was leveraging on technology to examine the integrity of the
elections.
Praiseworth said that this became imperative due to the loose link in
Nigeria’s election collation process, adding that CDD and Policy Legal
Advocacy Centre (situation room) was partnering to operate an Election
Fusion Centre (EFC).
He said that EFC would tally and verify election results from all the 8,809 ward collation centres (WCCs) across the country.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that CDD was partnering with
Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA), MacArthur Foundation,
National Endowment for Democracy (NED), and National Democratic
Institute (NDI), among others to achieve this.
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