NEDO plans 4,000 observers for 2027 polls

Five civil society organisations have launched the Nigeria Election Data Observatory (NEDO) Consortium with plans to deploy more than 4,000 observers to monitor the 2027 general elections.

The consortium comprises Dataphyte Foundation, Yiaga Africa, BudgIT Foundation, the Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development (CJID) and DEAN Initiative.

Launched in Abuja on Tuesday, the initiative seeks to strengthen independent election observation, improve the verification of electoral information and address discrepancies in results and conflicting reports during the electoral process.

Speaking on behalf of the consortium, Dataphyte Foundation Country Director, Oluseyi Olufemi, said the initiative was designed to address fragmentation in election observation, civic data management and information sharing among organisations working to protect electoral integrity.

The statement noted that the 2023 general elections exposed the limitations of separate observation networks and data management systems, particularly following challenges associated with the Independent National Electoral Commission’s Result Viewing Portal.

It added that public confidence in the electoral process remained a concern, citing a September 2026 National Voting Intentions Survey by Yiaga Africa, which found that only 34 per cent of respondents expressed confidence in INEC’s ability to conduct credible elections.

The consortium said the growing use of generative artificial intelligence, deepfakes, manipulated content and misinformation had further increased the need for coordinated, independent monitoring.

To support its operations, Dataphyte Foundation, which serves as the consortium’s secretariat, has developed a shared data aggregation and information-sharing platform that allows participating organisations to exchange and reuse verified electoral information.

The platform also uses automated data scraping and artificial intelligence-powered optical character recognition to retrieve election results published by INEC and convert result-sheet images from the IReV portal into machine-readable data.

According to the statement, the information will be used on interactive election-result platforms operated by consortium partners, including Dataphyte Foundation and BudgIT Foundation, while relevant data will be made available to the public.

The consortium will also draw on Yiaga Africa’s Watching the Vote observer network to document electoral incidents, voting processes, collation and results.

It said the information will support verification and reporting by media organisations coordinated by CJID and provide an independent basis for comparison with results published on IReV.

It also announced the launch of the NEDO App, which field observers will use to document developments across the electoral process and feed information into a shared evidence repository for analysis, reporting and public communication.

Dataphyte Foundation Programme Manager, Abdulahi Adebayo, said the application would provide consortium partners with access to information for analysis, visualisation, advocacy and reporting.

The consortium said it would publish a post-election report and make relevant data available for research, advocacy and electoral reform.