. . . Endorse WhatsApp Bot to be used to report election results from Polling Units

Diaspora Medics For Good Governance (DM4GG) has urged Nigerian voters to come out in their numbers tomorrow, March 18, for the Governorship and the State Houses of Assembly elections, and to vote for the candidates that will promote good governance in the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

The group gave the advice Friday via a statement co-signed by its Directors – Dr Chukwudi Muojieje, Dr Kunle Adedeji, Dr Chete M. Eze-Nliam, Dr Idu Nwapa, Prof Dilly Anumba, and Mrs. Maureen Aghomon.

DM4GG noted the widespread dissatisfaction with the conduct of the Presidential elections on February 25, and appealed to Nigerian voters not to be deterred by the irregularities that occurred, but to come out in large numbers to perform their civic duties by voting on March 18, 2023.

The statement reads in part: “The Diaspora Medics for Good Governance (DM4GG), a diaspora-based group comprising mainly medical professionals with the vision of restoring Nigeria’s health and related sectors to their full potential, has expressed dissatisfaction with the conduct of the February 25 Presidential election, noting that it was characterized by irregularities and electoral manipulations.

“DM4GG believes that good governance is indispensable to the actualization of a vibrant and healthy society and therefore appeals to Nigerian voters to come out and carry out their civic duties by voting on March 18, 2023 during the Governorship and State House of Assembly elections.”

The group added that In order to avert irregularities and rigging at tomorrow’s Governorship and State House of Assembly elections, it has evaluated and endorsed the WhatsApp Bot developed by Mrs. Itoro Liney to be used to report election results from the Polling Units (Pus) across the 176,974 Polling Units in the country. “DM4GG strongly recommends that voters report the conduct and results of the elections in their Polling Units using this Bot, accessible via the link as follows: https://t.co/e3coD4RDN1”, the group said in the statement.

Giving an explanation on how to use the WhatsApp Application, the group said that, “The idea is to send results from our respective Polling Units to a central collating place, so that the true results are documented in real time and compared to the eventual official results declared by INEC, thereby ensuring that we can have confidence in the process.

“The first step is to send a WhatsApp message (such as “Hi”) to +1234-901-3331 (also accessible via this link: https://t.co/e3coD4RDN1). You will receive a reply from the Bot asking you to identify your State from a list of states, followed by your local government area (LGA) from a list of LGAs, then your Ward from a list of Wards, and finally your Polling Unit (from a list of Polling Units). Once you choose your PU, it will ask which election you want to submit a result for, followed by which party and candidate you want to report for, and the number of votes that the candidate received at your PU. It will then give you options to add the votes for each of the other candidates at the election. At the end you will also be able to upload an image of the duly signed Form EC8 which captures the final vote tally for all the participating parties. Uploading this form is very important if you have an image of it on your camera. “

A demonstration of how the WhatsApp Bot works can also be found here: https://twitter.com/LineyNotLinney/status/1619947745544134657?s=20. (The Nation)

•File photo of voters on the queue

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