CODEO sanctifies EC verdict

The Coalition of Domestic Election Observers (CODEO) has indicated that its election observation results are consistent with the official presidential results announced by the Electoral Commission (EC) on December 9.
According to a statement signed by Sheikh Arimiyawo Sahibu, Acting Chairman of CODEO, his outfit used the Parallel Vote Tabulation (PVT) methodology, an advanced and scientific election observation technique that combines well-established statistical principles and Information Communication Technology (ICT), to observe the elections.
The PVT involves deploying trained accredited observers to a national representative random sample of polling stations, where they record the official vote count as announced by election officials and rapidly transmit this information to an observation center, via coded text messages, he said.
According to the Chairman, each candidate’s official result closely matches the PVT methodology estimate the coalition carried out, and falls within the estimated confidence of 95% range and associated margin of error.
Again, the PVT ranking of the presidential candidates, based on their share of the valid votes received, is largely similar to what was put out by the EC, Mr Shaibu said.
Mr Shaibu also indicated that the PVT estimated a rejected ballot of 2.25% with a margin of error of ±0.11%, which is also consistent with the EC’s figure of 2.33%.
However, the official voter turnout rate of 79.0% announced by the EC is slightly outside the PVT voter turnout confidence range, based on the estimated turnout rate of 79.69% and error margin of ±0.46% (Table2), and indicated it could be due to the exclusion of the outstanding results from the Techiman South Constituency, with a total number of 128,018 registered voters.
“By midnight of December 7, 2020, CODEO had received data of vote count from its 1,502 PVT Observers, who were deployed to a national representative random sample of polling stations located in every region and constituency of the country. CODEO, at this point, can confidently verify the outcomes of the presidential election results as announced by the EC.
“…in general, each candidate’s official result closely matches the PVT estimate and falls within the estimated confidence of 95% range and the associated margin of error. Also, the PVT ranking of the presidential candidates, based on their share of the valid votes received, is largely similar to what was put out by the EC.”
According to the Chairman of CODEO, it was very confident about the figures it churned out because PVT was used to observe previous elections in 2008, 2012 and 2016 and the outcomes usually tallied with that of the EC.
“Previous PVT estimates of the presidential election results have been consistent with the official results announced by the EC in 2008, 2012 and 2016. CODEO’s PVT voter turnout, and rejected ballot rates in the previous elections, has also been consistent with the figures announced by the EC.”
Mr Shaibu said the he PVT technique had been deployed successfully around the world to promote electoral integrity and help defend the rights of citizens to vote and to protect such rights when exercised.
He said the first PVT was conducted in the Philippines in 1986. Since then, the methodology has been deployed in election observation in Bulgaria, Chile, Croatia, Guyana, Albania, Bangladesh, Belarus, Indonesia, Georgia, Macedonia, Slovakia, Montenegro, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru and Ukraine. And in Africa, the methodology has been deployed successfully in Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, Uganda, Burundi, Sierra Leone, Zambia, Ghana, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire, Kenya and Tunisia, hence, CODEO is on the right path.
The Chairman also indicated that aside the PVT estimates, which matched the official results of the EC, CODEO observers also reported that the two main parties (NDC and NPP) had party agents at over 99% of polling stations, and that both had party agents also sign the official declaration of the polls and were given copies of those documents, hence, the results are credible.

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