Stears launches open data project to enable real-time monitoring of 2023 general elections

The data company had earlier created the first real-time election database which was used during the 2019 general elections in Nigeria.

This database became so popular as it became the first choice for millions of election watchers all across the country who needed access to trusted results.

In order to effectively utilize this development, Stears has expanded its data coverage to become more granular so as to develop the product’s ability to monitor, analyze and visualize the elections as it aggregates more data.

To further create a more distinct and accurate mapping which will clearly differentiate candidates and constituencies, Stears’ data & engineering teams deployed complex data processing techniques to create the only existing map of constituency boundaries for the House of Representatives and State Houses of Assembly.

“Creating the boundaries for State Houses of Assembly constituencies has proved even more challenging because there is less information from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) about the constituency composition. However, the team is committed to being the first to complete and release this geospatial data set for Nigeria in January,” says Hannah Kates, who led this open data effort. 

Kates is a product manager and data scientist with loads of experience. Previously, she was responsible for a portfolio of public data explorer tools at the New York City Department of City Planning.

The recent PVC registration has revealed over 71 per cent of the 12 million newly printed PVCs belong to young people. This reveals there may be an information gap since most voters rely on their smartphones for accurate details concerning the election outcome.

Stears Elections aims to fill the void by offering a valuable data & insights tool to over 94 million ejection observers who want to objectively monitor election dynamics.

“This first version of Stears Elections was designed to allow voters find the candidates vying for their votes. With data on candidates from the Presidential elections down to the State Houses of Assembly, we’ve made it possible for users to sign up to monitor specific races. There is no existing product in the market that allows for this level of granularity,” explains Preston Ideh, Stears CEO.