CDD to launch election analysis centre in partnership with TheCable, Arise TV

The Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD) is set to launch an election analysis centre (EAC)  for the general election.

Describe “as a one stop shop for analysis”, the project is in partnership with TheCable, Arise TV and select media organisations.

Idayat Hassan, CDD director said the EAC located at Fraser Suite, 294 Leventis Close, central business district, Abuja, will be officially opened on February 14.

CDD said it will provide 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”.

“We will be deploying 3,500 trained observers to monitor the elections in all the 36 states plus the federal capital territory (FCT), the 774 local government areas (LGAs) and 2,642 political wards in the country,” she said in a speech read on her behalf by Shamsudeen Yusuf.

“The observers are being trained to carefully observe and report back on the accreditation and voting process (including movement of sensitive materials to polling units, the opening of polling units, setting up of polling units, and accreditation and voting).

“A newly developed GPS-enabled CDD Election Tracker will be deployed to enable accredited field observers report on the accreditation and voting processes. The tracker will also help us track where they 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.

“Our EAC shall have political scientists, historians, gender, conflict experts, data analyst and communication experts who will interrogate pre-election, Election Day and post-election events from a contemporary and historical lens.”

It said a fact checking team, comprising six fact checkers, will be deployed to spot, identify, investigate and counter fake news during the election.

“For the first time in the history of Nigeria, there will be a live telecast of election analysis by a civil society organization (CSO). On Tuesday 5 February 2019, we launched our maiden television program, tagged #Decision2019, in partnership with Arise TV – a television station available in 56 countries,” she said.

“Together with the station, we shall televise the analysis centre on the flagship program. This is to create a platform for impartial analysis using evidence and data to explain polls to the citizens. The program will also inform voters about procedural matters and arrangements that are made for the conduct of the elections, serve as a non-partisan platform for INEC to communicate its messages to the electorate.

“Our partners are Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA), MacArthur Foundation, The Canada, National Endowment for Democracy (NED), National Democratic Institute (NDI), Arise TV, Premium Times Nigeria, TheCable and the United States Institute for Peace (USIP).”