The Coalition of Domestic Election Observers (CODEO) has launched its National Information Centre (NIC) for the upcoming presidential and parliamentary elections on December 7, 2020.

The NIC, located inside the secure Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Centre, will be the central point for the collation of election results and the tracking of election-related incidents by CODEO.

At an event to open the facility on Thursday, December 3, 2020, Acting CODEO Chair, Sheik Armyawo Shaibu, said the CODEO secretariat is working round the clock to ensure that all its observers – over 4,000 of them spread across the country – are ready to discharge their duty on December 7.

“In executing our mandate to promote free, fair, credible, inclusive and peaceful elections, CODEO has, since 2008, successfully employed the Parallel Vote Tabulation (PVT) methodology to independently verify the accuracy of the official presidential results declared by the EC.

“Come Monday, December 7, 2020, CODEO will deploy 4,000 Stationary Polling Station Observers, 275 Collation Center Observers and 305 Roaming Observers. Out of the 4000 observers who will be stationed at sampled polling stations in all the 275 constituencies, 1500 will be PVT observers,” he said.

He explained that the observers will submit regular reports that will be analysed and the findings shared with key stakeholders and the general public.

How the NIC is structured

The NIC comprises the Nerve Center, Data Analysis and allied desk and Incidents Desk.

The Nerve Center of the NIC will perform tasks such as data entry and will receive a real-time report from observers. The Data Entry desk will be supported by the Data Analysis Team, the System Managers and the IT Team.

The NIC Incidents desk will include partnerships with Dubawa, Ghana Fact, Penplusbytes, Facebook and the National Media Commission (NMC).

The team will actively monitor all election-related incidents and relay real-time fact-checking to appropriate authorities.

CODEO NIC’s election day activity line-up

- CODEO Observers assigned to the various constituencies will be present at the polling station by 6:00 am to observe and report on the setting up process before voting begins;

- At noon of December 7, a press conference will be held to inform citizens and stakeholders on the progress of the elections;

- After close of polls at 5 pm, CODEO observers will continue to be present at the various polling stations to observe collation and counting of ballots;

- CODEO will use the information gathered through the PVT methodology to verify the conduct of the tabulation process and the accuracy of the results declared by the EC.