Arise TV, CDD, Others to Launch Election Analysis Centre

Udora Orizu in Abuja

Th The Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD) in collaboration with Arise TV, the broadcast arm of THISDAY Newspapers; National Democratic Institute (NDI), TheCable and some other media organisations, is set to launch an Election Analysis Centre (EAC) for the general election.

The EAC, described as a one-stop shop for analysis, is located at Fraser Suite, 294 Leventis Close, Central Business District, Abuja, and will be officially opened on February 14.

According to the CDD Director, Ms. Idayat Hassan, the EAC will provide accurate and real-time analysis of events in the build-up to the polls, Election Day and post-election period “in a more captivating, enriching and systematic manner.”

The director, who was represented at a press conference in Abuja, Thursday by Mr. Shamsudeen Yusuf, said: “We will be deploying 3,500 trained observers to monitor the elections in all the 36 states plus the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), the 774 local government areas and 2,642 political wards in the country.

“The observers are being trained to carefully observe and report back on the accreditation and voting process (including movement of sensitive materials to polling units, the opening of polling units, setting up of polling units, and accreditation and voting).”

“The newly developed GPS-enabled CDD Election Tracker will be deployed to enable accredited field observers report on the accreditation and voting processes. The tracker will also help us track where they are reporting from for quality control purposes. The tracker is developed in a way that also allows citizens and journalists to register and report only on incidents on the day of elections.”

The Centre, she stressed, is also deploying Telerivet – SMS-based platform for reporting and documenting data relating to Election Day activities.

She said: “Our EAC shall have political scientists, historians, gender, conflict experts, data analyst and communication experts who will interrogate pre-election, Election Day and post-election events from a contemporary and historical lens.
“For the first time in the history of Nigeria, there will be a live telecast of election analysis by a civil society organisation (CSO).

“On Tuesday, February 5, 2019, we launched our maiden television programme, tagged #Decision2019, in partnership with Arise TV – a television station available in 56 countries.”