The Coalition of Domestic Election Observers (CODEO), has trained and deployed 65 Long-Term Observers (LTOs) who will be observing the pre-election environment from September 1, 2020 to December 6, 2020.

The observers, each of whom has been assigned to one of 65 selected constituencies from all 16 regions of the country, will be monitoring the constituency level pre-election activities of key election stakeholders including the Electoral Commission (EC), the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE), the security agencies, political parties, traditional and religious leaders, Civil Society/Community-Based Organizations (CSOs/CBOs), and the media.

Among other things, the LTOs will be observing campaigning activities of political parties and candidates, civic education activities of relevant stakeholders, political discussions on local media platforms, and the inclusion and participation of marginalized groups in political activities and policy discussions, CODEO said in a statement on Monday.

The statement further said they will also observe preparatory activities of the EC such as vote transfer and voter education as well as the exhibition of the provisional voter register.

Long-Term Observation is a fundamental component of CODEO’s observation efforts as it provides the opportunity to assess the level of preparedness of key stakeholders towards the elections.

It also provides early warning of relevant issues which may undermine the integrity of the polls and provides an opportunity to mitigate such issues through appropriate and timely interventions.

This Long-Term Observation forms part of CODEO’s comprehensive observation of the 2020 presidential and parliamentary elections and will be followed up by Election-Day Observation activities including the deployment of a Parallel Vote Tabulation (PVT) to verify the accuracy of the outcome of the presidential election.

CODEO claimed it will keep the public and all stakeholders informed of findings from its pre-election observation through monthly press releases which will be based on weekly observation reports submitted by the LTOs.