The Transition Monitoring Group, on Tuesday inaugurated the 2015 Quick Count with which it intended to independently verify the accuracy of the official results which the Independent National Electoral Commission would announce in the 2015 elections.

Speaking during inauguration ceremony in Abuja, TMG’s chairman, Mr. Ibrahim Zikirullahi, said apart from striving to prevent fraud and build confidence in the citizenry, the Quick Count, would help to “determine whether election processes are genuinely democratic”.

He said, “Through the TMG Quick Count, non-partisan citizen observers will deploy to a random representative sample of polling units across the country to report on the opening, accreditation, voting and counting processes during election day, as well as collect voting results and voter turnout figures.

“The heart of Quick Count rests on establishing a representative, random sample of polling units. This means that observers will deploy to LGAs in the same proportion as there are polling uits located in each LGA.”

TMG said it, along with other groups, used the Quick Count method to verify the 2011 elections.

It said though the 2015 elections “were not without shortcomings”, the Quick Count showed that the official presidential results reflected the votes cast at polling units”.

Zikirullahi, who was on Monday re-elected along with other members of his executive committee to lead the group for another term, described the Quick Count project as an advanced observation methodology based on tested statistical principles.

According to him, the method employs Information Communication Technology in its operation.

He said, “During the Quick Count, observers watch the accreditation, voting and counting processes as well as the conduct of electoral stakeholders such as INEC officials, political party agents and the security forces.

“The observers record this information on standardised forms and report their findings to evaluate the overall quality of the election day process.

“The observers send in the rports via coded text messages at various intervals during the day, which allows TMG to rapidly collate and analyse in real time the quality of the election as it unfolds.”

At the event on Tuesday, the 37 state coordinators and 111 deputy coordinators selected from various senatorial districts across the country, who would coordinate the project at their various domains also pledged to be neutral and objective while carrying out their tasks.