Photo · Shesunze Shamaye / Pexels
Why this exists
Many Nigerians stopped believing that free and fair elections were possible a long time ago. The "glitch" in 2023 was the hay that broke the camel's back and a lot of people lost hope.
No one is coming to save Nigerians. We must rise and save ourselves. This is built for everyone who wants to ensure the integrity of the electoral process and the aim is a result that every citizen can check for themselves in the open.
The lesson of 2023
When the record sits behind one door, trust collapses
Nigeria runs one of the largest elections on Earth. In 2023, accreditation (BVAS) largely worked on the day. Then the public results portal (IReV) failed to upload the presidential results. The images came late and incomplete, and weeks of doubt, protest, and "go to court" followed. If we do not want a repeat, then something must be done differently.
Polling units in the 2023 general elections, roughly 176,606 of them with registered voters. A country this big needs more than one witness. [1]
Just one point of failure was enough. When the official upload stalled, there was no independent record ready to fill the gap. [2] That is exactly what this network is being built for and is proposing to prevent.
What actually works
Independent verification, running in parallel
The world already knows what protects an election. It is called Parallel Vote Tabulation (PVT), or a "quick count," which was pioneered by citizen volunteers in the Philippines in 1986 and has been used since then across Ghana, Indonesia, Zambia, Ukraine, Sierra Leone. [3] In Ghana, the nonpartisan CODEO has used it for years to deter election result manipulation. [4] In Indonesia, volunteers built Kawal Pemilu which means "guard the election," so that any citizen could check the numbers. [5]
Capture polling-unit results fast. Copy them everywhere. Count them independently. Make manipulation pointless, because too many honest people are watching, and the evidence already lives in too many places to erase.
Command & coordination · illustrative
One live picture, from every polling unit
As results and reports arrive, the network builds one shared view: coverage, the independent count, and where help is needed most. The figures here are illustrative.
One ballot going into the box. Multiply it by 176,846, and you have a country's voice.
Photo · Fatima Yusuf / Pexels
What we are building
A network on four pillars
A combination of trained people, sturdy technology and logistics. Built for resource-limited settings, areas with limited internet infrastructure, long queues, and high stakes.
Many eyes
Trained, accredited observers and ordinary citizens documenting each polling unit with timestamped, verifiable evidence.
An independent count
A parallel, citizen-run tally - the proven PVT method, compared quickly against INEC numbers.
Humane voting
Water, shade, seating, first aid and queue information, so that heat, hunger, fatigue and dead phone batteries do not become the deciding factors of voter turnout.
Rapid, lawful response
Lawyers, medics and coordinators who meet incidents and intimidation by documenting them and escalating them lawfully.
Election day is a human event. Mothers, elders, and first-time voters all need shade, water, and a place to rest.
Photo · Najim Kurfi / Pexels
How it is organised
Three engines, eight layers
A proposal, offered for discussion and improvement. Three cooperating engines, and each one needs the others.
- Election OS, the technologyOffline-first, runs smoothly on the most basic of Android phones with SMS fallback. To help with evidence capture, resource coordination, and to update people in real time about what is happening.
- Volunteer & civic networkStructured roles, verification, and trust that grows as people prove reliable.
- Humanitarian operationsLawful welfare and logistics support for voters and observers.
People sign up indicating what their capabilities are (and these are verified)
Puts verified volunteers where they are really needed, filling staffing gaps.
Churches, mosques, clinics, schools, halls or any one/organisation that can offer water, shade, seating, medics and device charging, all matched to where it is needed.
Transparent, small-scale funding with a receipt and audit trail. Every naira remains traceable.
Security, welfare, incident de-escalation, safe routes and incident reporting on the ground.
Codes/tags that are distributed to people who opt in, to help with queue wait-times and crowding. These tags will carry no voter identity and will primarily be used to send help where needed.
Dashboards from national level down to a single polling unit, any unit with issues displays as red on the dashboard so problems are flagged early with evidence.
Shared, rules-based governance with audit trails, appeals, and a charter, so no single person controls this system and infiltration is limited.
Our boundaries
Free and Fair Elections for Everyone
Every Nigerian regardless of party affiliation deserves free, fair and transparentelections
This network will have to be nonpartisan
The system works for all Nigerians and for Nigeria, not for a specific candidate, party or campaign. We do not collect anyone's party affiliation data.
Lawful
Everything operates within Nigerian law. Confidentiality is used to keep people safe.
Privacy-protecting
The system collects the minimum data needed to coordinate, and keeps every person separate from how they voted.
Transparent & accountable
What everyone does, how the network is funded, and how decisions are made is all documented and open. The design itself makes corruption hard.
Built to withstand corruption
Trust no one, verify everybody
A network this ambitious will be tested by infiltration, impersonation, and disinformation. So it is built on structure that earns trust over time. People only get access to what their role needs and any sensitive action will need more than one person to sign off. Every claim must be corroborated by at least a second report. New volunteers start with low-risk tasks and grow into responsibility. Every significant decision will leave an audit trail o nthe system. Governance is split across separate functions: strategy, operations, security, funding oversight, and an independent appeals-and-ethics group. This will keep the system out of any single person's hands. We cover Nigeria steadily, beginning with a focused pilot in a few states, proving it works under real conditions, fixing what breaks, then scaling toward 2027.