By E.J. Nathaniel Daygbor
More than a dozen political parties featuring presidential and legislative candidates in the scheduled October 10 general elections have reached deal to jointly monitor the casting, counting and tallying of votes.
Erstwhile ruling Unity Party and the Alternative National Congress are the big players in the opposition community leading the joint vote monitoring and observation collaboration barely a year after they failed to draw a common presidential ticket.
Under the arrangement, parties will share poll watchers at all polling places and precincts instead of operating as separate unit.
They are expected to build a network of vote monitors that functions in a way that allows support and trust from each other.
For example, where there is a Unity Party poll watcher, the CPP will not deploy observe, relying on the UP to cover the area, a source who was in the meeting told the Oracle News Daily.
When the campaign spokesman of the Unity Party was contacted via WhatsApp, he confirmed the information but said,
“The information is true,” Unity Party’s campaign spokesman Mohammed Ali said when contacted about the veracity of an opposition consolidation on vote counting. He referenced the African Liberation League as the organizer of the meeting.
“This initiative is intended to ensure we cover every voting room so that we are not robbed,” Orashell Gould said.
The National Elections Commission has established 5,890 polling places across the country. With political parties permitted to deploy two observers at a polling place, each will need 11,780 representatives across the country on voting day.
The strategy is more about cost sharing than an effective means of “protecting vote, “judging from the financial burden of transporting, providing logistics and daily sustenance allowances.
