A consortium of 5 civil society organisations has launched the Nigeria Election Data Observatory (NEDO), a joint election monitoring and data-sharing initiative designed to strengthen unbiased verification of election outcomes, observe electoral incidents and enhance public entry to credible info forward of the 2027 common elections.
The consortium, comprising Dataphyte Foundation, YIAGA Africa, BudgIT Foundation, the Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development (CJID), and Dean Initiative, mentioned it plans to deploy greater than 4,000 election observers via the networks of its member organisations for the 2027 polls.
The initiative will combine info gathered by election observers, information from official outcomes printed by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), analysis findings, and media reviews into a standard technological platform for evaluation, verification, and public communication.
Oluseyi Olufemi of Dataphyte Foundation, who learn the consortium’s assertion on the launch, mentioned the initiative was designed to handle the fragmentation of election remark actions amongst civil society organisations and set up a coordinated system for inspecting electoral info.
He defined that though civil society teams had invested appreciable sources in election remark, voter schooling, incident monitoring, analysis and information evaluation over time, a lot of the data generated remained inside separate institutional networks and information programs.
According to him, this association has restricted the power of organisations to mixture and evaluate proof, confirm reviews throughout totally different sources and maximise the worth of their investments in election monitoring.
The consortium mentioned the expertise of the 2023 common elections, notably the controversies surrounding INEC’s Result Viewing Portal (IReV) and the transmission and public show of election outcomes, bolstered the necessity for a coordinated, unbiased civic info system.
It argued that an built-in platform would allow civil society organisations to match official election data with unbiased observations from polling models and different places, determine discrepancies that require additional investigation, and talk findings supported by verifiable proof.
A significant part of NEDO is the deployment of expertise to gather, course of and analyse outcomes printed by INEC.
The consortium mentioned it might incorporate automated information assortment programs able to retrieving info accessible from the electoral fee, alongside synthetic intelligence optical character recognition (OCR) expertise.
The OCR expertise converts photos of election consequence sheets obtained from IReV into machine-readable information that may be organised, analysed and shared with taking part organisations.
The consortium mentioned the system would assist interactive election consequence platforms developed by its companions, together with Dataphyte Foundation and BudgIT Foundation, whereas making electoral info extra accessible for public scrutiny.
Through the association, info collected by one taking part organisation can be made accessible to different companions via software programming interfaces (APIs) and different data-sharing mechanisms.
The coalition cited public confidence within the electoral course of as another excuse to ascertain the observatory.
It cited YIAGA Africa’s September 2026 National Voting Intention Survey, which reportedly discovered that solely 34 per cent of respondents expressed confidence in INEC’s means to conduct credible elections.
The consortium mentioned the discovering highlighted the significance of unbiased election remark and entry to credible info all through the electoral cycle.
It additionally warned that the rising use of generative synthetic intelligence, deepfakes, manipulated content material, and misinformation had created further challenges for the integrity of electoral info.
According to the coalition, residents more and more want dependable technique of distinguishing genuine election info from false or deceptive claims, notably during times when political tensions and competing accounts of electoral occasions might affect public notion.
It mentioned NEDO would convey collectively unbiased remark networks, analysis establishments, information platforms and media organisations to enhance the gathering and verification of electoral proof.
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