Channels Television and Yiaga Africa have launched an Election Results Analysis Dashboard (ERAD) to promote transparency of election results.
The dashboard is based on official results uploaded on the INEC’s Results Viewing Portal (IReV).
IReV involves scanning or photographing Polling Unit result sheets (Form EC 8A) once they are completed and verified and subsequently uploading the pictures to a dedicated backend server.
At the front end, the portal allows members of the public to create personal accounts and log-in details with which they can gain access to all uploaded results stored as PDF files.
The real-time publishing of polling unit-level results and transmission of results using the IReV demonstrates INEC’s commitment to transparency in results management. This commitment is backed by the Electoral Act 2022, which confers INEC with powers to transmit election results electronically.
While the introduction of IReV has increased public confidence in results management, it offers wide-ranging opportunities for public information based on data directly sourced from INEC’s portal and backed by informed analysis of the results.
For this reason, the ERAD is developed to support INEC by providing the public with access to election results from the polling unit in relative real-time. To achieve this goal, the Election Results Analysis Dashboard will be embedded within the election-day broadcast of Channels Television.
In addition, the ERAD will provide an independent audit and integrity test of INEC’s election results management system by tracking results from the polling units based on Commission’s own published results.
The business process of the ERAD entails download, extraction, and verification of results from the IReV, visualization of the data in diverse formats, scriptwriting, and expert analysis of the results.
Yiaga Africa and Channels Television recognize INEC’s constitutional mandate to declare electoral outcomes; therefore, the ERAD will not declare any party or candidate winner of the election.
The ERAD will be limited to publicizing results released by INEC on its online portal. With this innovation, members of the public with limited internet access to the results viewing portal can obtain polling unit results through the ERAD.
It is important to note that Yiaga Africa is deploying the Parallel Vote Tabulation (PVT) for the Ekiti election. While the PVT is based on results declared by INEC officials from a random sample of polling units and transmitted by Yiaga Africa citizens observers to the Watching The Vote data center in Ado-Ekiti, the ERAD is strictly based on official results uploaded on the INEC results viewing portal. Both tools will play a complementary role in ensuring the Ekiti election pass the electoral integrity test.
As partners, we expect that the net effect of the ERAD will be improved public confidence in election results management and the broader electoral process.
