NEDO Plans 4,000 Observers, AI Monitoring for 2027 General Election.
The initiative, under the Nigeria Election Data Observatory (NEDO) Consortium, is designed to strengthen independent monitoring of voting, result collation and transmission, while enabling participating organisations to cross-check electoral information and expose discrepancies.
The consortium, comprising Dataphyte Foundation, Yiaga Africa, BudgIT Foundation, the Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development (CJID), and DEAN Initiative, was launched in Abuja yesterday.
At the heart of the initiative is a shared data platform that will combine information from election observers, media organisations and technology systems to build an independent evidence base against which official election information can be examined.
The platform will use artificial intelligence (AI)-powered optical character recognition (OCR) to convert result-sheet images published on the Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) Result Viewing Portal (IReV) into machine-readable data, enabling the system to flag potential discrepancies for further verification. Under the arrangement, figures recorded on result sheets can be analysed for inconsistencies, including discrepancies between votes recorded and relevant voter figures. The system is also designed to identify errors ranging from typographical mistakes to potentially serious irregularities. The consortium said the technology would support the identification and documentation of questionable figures as result sheets are uploaded, rather than leaving discrepancies to emerge only after the collation process.
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