A consortium of Civil Society Organisations has launched a platform to monitor election results and other activities related to the 2027 elections.
The organisations which include Dataphyte Foundation, Yiaga Africa, BudgIT Foundation, the Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development (CJID), and DEAN Initiative said the platform termed Nigeria Election Data Observatory (NEDO) allows partners to contribute to, access, and reuse verified electoral information across their platforms and public communication channels.
Speaking on behalf of the Consortium, Country Director of Dataphyte Foundation, Oluseyi Olufemi, explained that the NEDO initiative is designed to bridge fragmentation in election observation, civic data management and information distribution among organisations working to protect electoral integrity and safeguard electoral information and data systems.
He added that the platform also incorporates automated data scraping technology designed to retrieve election results published by INEC in real time.
‘Using AI-powered Optical Character Recognition (OCR), the system converts result-sheet images obtained from the INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV) into machine-readable data. The system then distributes and uses this information on interactive election-result platforms operated by consortium partners, including Dataphyte Foundation and BudgIT Foundation, while making relevant electoral data accessible to the general public.’
He added that a central strength of the initiative is its pooled human network of election observers, including YIAGA Africa’s Watching The Vote (WTV) network, who will provide real-time information on electoral incidents, voting processes, collation and election results.
‘Information collected through this network will support election reporting and verification by CJID-coordinated media organisations, while also providing an independent evidence base for comparison with results published on IReV.’
He pointed out that the 2023 general elections exposed the limits of this fragmented approach, particularly when challenges with the INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV) highlighted the need for shared civic resources to consolidate observation data and independently cross-check electoral information.
Programme Manager at Dataphyte Foundation, Abdulahi Adebayo, explained that the application will feed information into a shared evidence repository accessible to consortium partners for analysis, reporting, visualisation, advocacy, and public communication.
The NEDO initiative is designed to address potentially conflicting reports, result discrepancies, misinformation and allegations of irregularities that often arise when organisations work in silos.
‘Rather than relying on separate datasets, consortium partners can cross-check information across observer networks, verify competing claims, identify inconsistencies, and communicate findings based on a wider body of evidence.’