CODEO launches Preparatory Activities towards 2020 Elections

…Poised to Deploy Election-Day Observers

In line with its objectives to promote free, fair and transparent elections, the Coalition for Domestic Election Observers (CODEO) is set to deploy Election-Day Observers for the December 2020 presidential and parliamentary elections.

CODEO’s non-partisan observers will comprise stationary and roaming observers who will be deployed to a randomly-selected sample of polling stations across the country. The polling stations will be drawn using a multi-stage random sampling procedure to arrive at a nationally representative sample of all polling stations in the country. CODEO observers will keep an eye onall proceedings from the start of polls to closing. The observers will also monitor the counting of ballots and report to the CODEO National Information Center through an SMS-based platform as the Coalitiondeploysthe Parallel Vote Tabulation (PVT), for the fourth time, to independently verify the presidential election results.

This was announced during the launch of the preparatory activities for election day observation, which also doubled as the opening session of a training workshop for 30 CODEO Regional Coordinators. The 30 Regional Coordinators will undergo three days of training and capacity-building aimed at equipping them with the requisite skills to support and manage CODEO’s election observation activities at the regional level.

As the largest citizen observer group in Ghana, CODEO’s 2020 elections support project is anchored on the implementation of three key interventions that traverse the pre-election, Election-Day and post-election phases. These interventions include the promotion of community-level, Civic Voter and Peace Education activities across the country, in partnership with the National Commission for Civic Education(NCCE); the deployment of election observers from the pre-election phase through Election-Day, to the post-election period; and the implementation of a Parallel Vote Tabulation (PVT)will enable the Coalition to verify the accuracy of the 2020 presidential election results. Also beginning this week, District NCCE Directors and CODEO Civic/Voter/Peace Educators will roll out civic education activities in all districts of the country.

Speaking at the launch of the Election-Day preparatory activities, SheikArmiyawo Shaibu, the Acting Chair, expressed concern about the incidents of election-related violence recorded so far as the country prepares to go to the December polls.

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“CODEO urges the Inspector-General of Police and indeed, the Ghana Police Service to step-up investigations into such cases and to update the general public on the progress and outcomes of these investigations,” he said. “This is very necessary for dealing with impunity for electoral violence.”

CODEO has since 2008 deployed the PVT, an advanced election observation methodology, which uses time-tested statistical principles to provide the most comprehensive and accurate account of the voting and counting process as well as the quality of the process across the country. The PVT methodology will as well enable CODEO to independently verify the accuracy of the election results tabulation process and the official presidential results declared by the EC. In the immediate post-election period, CODEO also deploy 30 post-election observers to monitor post-election related developments in thirty specially-selected constituencies. The Coalition is also collaborating with Dubawa and GhanaFact to factcheck election day information in order to tackle misinformation and disinformation.

CODEO’s 2020 Election Support Project is funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID-Ghana).