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CODEO Acting President, Sheikh Armiyawo Shaibu
The Coalition of National Election Observers (CODEO), an independent group of electoral observers, has deployed 4,400 electoral observers in 275 electoral districts for today’s parliamentary and presidential elections.
The observers comprise 1,502 stationary observers, who will be deployed to selected polling stations across the country, and the remainder will constitute “mobile observers,” who would cross the polling stations without stationed observers.
Officials are required to observe the polling station setup and process, the voting and counting procedures, the declaration of the vote count, and also report on any incidents they observe during the exercise.
CODEO will also employ a vote tabulation system known as Parallel Voter Tabulation (PVT) to tabulate the results and assess the quality of the electoral process across the country.
Proper preparation
CODEO Acting Chairman Sheikh Armiyawo Shaibu, who revealed this at a press conference in Teshie near Accra today (Sunday 6 December), said the organization had adequately prepared for this year’s exercise.
He said preparation for the deployment of officers for the election began in October this year with the training of all its officers, including national coordinators, constituency supervisors and rapid response observers (RRO).
He said that, as part of efforts to ensure that the trained observers were nonpartisan, staff were recruited from member organizations.
“At CODEO we are very confident that our observers have received the best training. They have been duly accredited by the Election Commission to carry out this important national task with competence and integrity, ”said Sheikh Shaibu.
Reporting
Mentioning how the coalition will operate on Election Day, Sheikh Shaibu said that CODEO had established a National Information Center (NIC) at the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Center to facilitate its operations.
It said its observers would report their findings using Short Message Service (SMS) technology to the NIC, adding that the coalition had also developed a system that would allow its observers to quickly transmit their observation reports in designated time frames.
He added that the Coalition would also establish a critical incidents desk at the NIC to receive infractions, irregularities and other bad practices that may occur during the voting process.
“Once verified, CODEO will share these critical incidents with relevant stakeholders such as the Election Security Working Group and the EC for appropriate actions and any corrective measures,” said Shiekh Shaibu.
Dissemination of Findings
Sheikh Shaibu further indicated that, based on the observation and reporting system, he has planned to make three statements on his observations available to the general public at various time intervals within 24 hours of the start of the vote.
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