Nigeria’s opposition People Democratic Party (PDP) has deployed Parallel Voting Tabulation (PVT) system, which it said will be used to checkmate the 2019 election processes, especially in areas where the results are highly contested.
The PVT system, according to Mr. Osita Chidoka, the party’s campaign spokesperson and chairman of the Strategy Committee of the PDP Presidential Campaign, is scientifically proven, best practice technique, to hold election authorities accountable, particularly when there is a lack of trust.
.” “The PVT is a tool that will assure that PDP partisans accept the results of the election, and that the country remains peaceful and respectful of its differences. We are aware that other PVTs will be conducted by civil society,” Chidoka said at a media briefing in Abuja.
According to the former Aviation Minister, the PVT methodology accounts for several different scenarios to ensure continued collation of the results in the event of any disruptions with collation process.
H said hard copies of the signed voter tally provided to all party agents by the NEC officers, will be transported to the central command center should future disputes need to be reconciled.
Apart from the Parallel Voting Tabulation system, the PDP also has in place a national network of fully equipped Situation Rooms and call centres. The centres, according to Chidoka will be fed a reporting system for the PVT through the wards, to the district headquarters, to the states, up to the national tally centre.
In the event of internet or communications shutdown or failure or any other eventualities, the system has redundancies built at all levels, emphasizing that the essence of the system is to mainly to the party with statistical certainty to accept or challenge the declared results.
A Parallel Vote Tabulation (PVT), sometimes called a Quick Count, is a proven methodology employed by nonpartisan citizen observers to independently verify official election results. A PVT is based on systematic assessment of voting and counting processes.