TMG Introduces Quick Count Method For 2015 Elections

A civil society organisation, Transition Monitoring Group (TMG) has launched a Quick Count methodology ahead of the 2015 general elections in February.

According to the Group, the method will help election observers send reports via coded text messages as they happen in polling stations across Nigeria.

The method is also expected to prevent  multiple voting and post-elections violence during the 2015 general elections.

Speaking during inauguration ceremony in Abuja on Tuesday, the Chairman of the Group, Mr Ibrahim Zikirullahi, said apart from striving to prevent fraud and build confidence in the citizenry, the Quick Count, would help to “determine whether election processes are genuinely democratic”.

He added that “through the TMG Quick Count, non-partisan citizen observers will deploy to a random representative sample of polling units across the country to report on the opening, accreditation, voting and counting processes during election day, as well as collect voting results and voter turnout figures.

“The heart of Quick Count rests on establishing a representative, random sample of polling units. This means that observers will deploy to LGAs in the same proportion as there are polling units located in each LGA”.

The integrity of the process is, however, based on the neutrality and objectivity of observers in the field. While percentage of error in past trial of the method was minimal, officials, said they are working hard not to compromise the process.

Mr Zikirullahi, who said the method employs Information Communication Technology in its operation, added that “during the Quick Count, observers watch the accreditation, voting and counting processes as well as the conduct of electoral stakeholders such as Independent National Electoral Commission’s officials, political party agents and the security forces.

“The observers record this information on standardised forms and report their findings to evaluate the overall quality of the election day process.

“The observers send in the reports via coded text messages at various intervals during the day, which allows TMG to rapidly collate and analyse in real time the quality of the election as it unfolds,” he said.

At the event on Tuesday, the 37 state coordinators and 111 deputy coordinators selected from various senatorial districts across the country, who would coordinate the project at their various domains, also pledged to be neutral and objective while carrying out their tasks.

Meanwhile, the electoral body said it would monitor activities of independent observers during the elections to avoid feeding the public with inaccurate reports.

A representative of the election monitoring body, who was at the launch of the Quick Count, said: “We have observed that not all observer groups have the financial muscle to train all its field workers, so what the commission has done in partnership with IFES is to undertake a training of trainers. We train their own trainers before they deploy their observers to the field. This we will do to all observer cost at no cost to all observer groups”, he said.