It is election season and in two days, the first ballots will be cast in Nigeria’s Presidential and National Assembly elections. With credibility high on the agenda for many people, a mobile app has been launched by the Centre for Democracy and Development, West Africa named, CDD Election Tracker. It has been designed for monitoring, observing, supervising and auditing the 2019 general elections in Nigeria.
Monitoring the elections to ensure they are free and fair is of concern to most stakeholders and both human and technology components are expected for deployment in ensuring the credibility of the polls. The CDD Election Tracker mobile app which is currently available for download via Google Play Store on Android devices including mobile phones and tablets, is expected to provide a platform for monitoring and report on the elections.
Social Politico, a U.S.-based firm, which says it has offices in San Francisco and Los Angeles, designed the mobile app. Social Politico in a statement sent to BusinessDay TechTalk, noted that the CDD Election Tracker mobile app can be used by individuals in the public, the media, NGOs, as well as local and foreign observers. Notably, the African Union, Commonwealth Secretariat, European Union (EU), Organisation of American States (OAS), the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), and the Council of Europe, amongst other local and foreign observers can use the CDD Election Tracker mobile app to monitor the 2019 general elections in Nigeria.
The App’s developers say it was designed because many impartial and credible election observers (local and foreign) across Africa face a major challenge of using modern technology to monitor, supervise, and observe the legitimacy of electoral processes. As such, in many cases, they lack the required state-of-the-art tool to enhance the quality and credibility of elections across the continent.
The CDD Election Tracker mobile app according to Social Politico was specifically designed to address this challenge by making election monitoring, supervision and observation an absolutely easy process for both local and foreign observers.
By using the CDD Election Tracker mobile app, it is expected that observers will easily help build and restore public confidence in the transparency of elections conducted in Nigeria. Through appropriate monitoring, the app can help protect the civil and political rights of Nigerians and expose fraud, errors and unfair electoral practices.
TechTalk downloaded the app, and it requires a quick sign up process. However, a user is unable to log in for an unknown period of time until the “Admin” has verified the email address used for sign up. As a form of review, this is a minus as it could hinder operation of the App by intending users.
