CODEO launches tabulation system for election monitoring

The Coalition of Domestic Election Observers (CODEO) has launched a vote tabulation system to monitor and collate votes on the December 7 election day. 

The Parallel Vote Tabulation (PVT) will allow CODEO members to monitor polling activities on election day by reporting the number of votes counted at various polling stations.

This real-time data collection will be aggregated to estimate election results, providing a critical check on the official results announced by the Electoral Commission (EC).

Observers will send vote counts via SMS text messaging to a central database, ensuring that information is reported promptly and accurately.

This approach, according to CODEO, would not only bolster its monitoring efforts, but would also enhance the overall transparency of the electoral process.

Launch

Renowned diplomat, Dr Mohammed Ibn Chambas, launched the PVT yesterday alongside CODEO’s comprehensive plan for monitoring Ghana's upcoming December 7 elections.

Dr Chambas urged the security agencies to ensure that the election was devoid of violence.

He urged stakeholders in the electoral process not to be complacent but to work collectively to ensure a peaceful, credible and inclusive general election.

“Let’s not be complacent; let’s work to improve on our past performance to make this one even better. This is a shared responsibility, and so state institutions and civil society organisations need to approach this with all seriousness, being mindful that our country has a track record of conducting peaceful elections,” he said. 

Activities

A Co-Chair of CODEO, Elizabeth Joyce Villars, said as part of the coalition’s long-term pre-election observation, it had since the beginning of October trained 100 long-term observers (LTOs) deployed to various regions in the country to monitor constituency-level pre-election activities of key election stakeholders.

The stakeholders include the EC, the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) and the National Peace Council (NPC).

“We at CODEO are making the necessary preparations and all that we can to support our country’s political process,” Ms Villars said, adding that to this end, CODEO would deploy 4,000 polling stationary observers on the December 7 election day. 

These observers, she said, would observe the conduct of the polls from the opening to voting, counting and declaration of results at selected polling stations.

Mrs Villars said as part of CODEO’s preparations to deploy those 4,000 observers, it had recruited 31 regional coordinators from across the 16 regions to help manage the election day deployment.

These coordinators, she said, were going to be taken through a rigorous training exercise aimed at equipping them for the task ahead.

“After receiving training, they will also be assisting the secretariat to recruit and train 276 constituency supervisors who will then also assist with the recruitment and training of polling station observers,” she said.

Post-election

After the election, the CODEO Co-Chair said, the observer group would keep its eyes on the ground by deploying 20 observers to a purposively sampled set of constituencies to monitor post-election developments.

“Where necessary, CODEO will be liaising with relevant actors such as the security agencies to promote post-election peace,” she said.

A Deputy Chairman of the EC, Dr Eric Bossman Asare, assured all stakeholders of a successful, peaceful and inclusive elections. 

To increase the level of checks and balances in the country’s electoral process just like last year, he said, the EC would announce presidential results for each region.

Aside from that, he said, the commission would also ensure that the collation centres were more spacious to ensure that only accredited personnel were allowed in.