From application to verified report
Applying to YEGO runs through seven stages. The observation lifecycle that follows runs through six gates. Every stage and every gate is a human decision, and every decision is recorded.
One lifecycle. Six gates. No shortcuts.
The integrity of election day depends on the quality of every step before it, which is why the sequence is enforced rather than encouraged.
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01
Register
A structured application captures identity, contact and location details once, in one record. Registration creates a record and nothing more: it confers no standing, no credential and no deployment.
- Identity and location details are captured at intake, not gathered later in the field.
- Registration is the beginning of the process, not the end of it.
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02
Get verified
Authorised officers screen every applicant against the details and documentation submitted. Registration alone is never verification, and no applicant is admitted to training on the strength of an application.
- Verification is a human decision, recorded with a reason and attributable to an officer.
- Where identity details do not match the documentation submitted, the application is rejected and the reason recorded.
- Applicants can track the status of their own application at any point.
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03
Get trained
Verified recruits complete a structured syllabus delivered by Master Trainers: the role and its limits, neutrality in practice, the legal framework, polling-unit procedure, incident reporting and evidence, early warning and safety, and the reporting tool.
- Each module has its own focus and its own assessment.
- The conduct module carries the strictest standard, because neutrality is what makes every other skill usable.
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04
Get certified
Certification is earned through scored assessment, not granted by attendance. A certified guard holds a YEGO credential and a digital identity recognised by the command structure.
- Certification is a recorded decision, visible in the audit log.
- Certification can be revoked, and a guard suspended or decertified, where conduct breaches the code.
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05
Get deployed
Certified guards are assigned to mapped polling units through the command chain: national structure, zonal structure, state coordinators, LGA and community coordinators. Deployment is an assignment, never a self-selection.
- Assignment follows the polling-unit mapping and the risk picture around it.
- Each level of the structure sees the scope its responsibility requires, and no more.
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06
Observe & report
On the day, a guard observes the sequence of polling: opening, accreditation, voting, counting and collation. A structured report is filed for every assigned polling unit, not only where something went wrong.
- Reports and early warnings are submitted through the digital reporting platform.
- Nothing a guard submits is published as a finding until an officer has reviewed it.
Gate three, in full. The training syllabus
- 01Citizens observation: role and mandate
- 02Code of conduct and neutrality
- 03Electoral law and observer standards
- 04Polling unit procedure
- 05Incident reporting and evidence
- 06Early warning and personal safety
- 07ERART platform practical
- 08Electoral violence prevention
- 09Field preparedness and practical assessment
The final curriculum is awaiting YEGO confirmation. The syllabus is delivered through the training centre.
How people become a mechanism
Human observation is the input. A verification mechanism is the machine. Information-sharing with the institutions that can act is the output.
300,000 Electoral Guards
Human observation & community-level reporting
YEGO-ERARM
Early warning, verification & coordination mechanism
YEGO-ERART
Digital reporting & incident-management platform
Relevant Authorities & Institutional Partners
Information-sharing, prevention & appropriate response action
The target of 300,000 Electoral Guards is a goal for the 2027 General Elections cycle. It describes the scale the mechanism is designed for, not a delivered figure.
Three instruments, one chain of custody
ERARM is the mechanism, ERART is the tool that powers it, and GMP is what the volunteers graduate into after the election.
YEGO Early Warning & Rapid Response Mechanisms
ERARM will leverage the targeted network of 300,000 Electoral Guards across Nigeria. Once onboarded and trained, YEGO Electoral Guards will serve as the human observation and reporting network of ERARM, identifying, monitoring, verifying and reporting emerging electoral risks, threats, voter intimidation, disruptions and other incidents that may affect peaceful participation and the integrity of the electoral process. It also facilitates information-sharing with relevant authorities and institutional partners to support appropriate preventive and responsive action.
YEGO Early Warning & Rapid Response Tool
ERART will serve as the digital reporting and incident-management platform powering the mechanism, enabling Electoral Guards and coordinators to submit, document, verify and track relevant reports.
Governance Monitoring Platform
After elections, YEGO volunteers are transformed into democratic accountability fellows through the Governance Monitoring Platform.
Reported is not verified
Every piece of information in the YEGO system sits at one of three levels, and the level is always visible to whoever is reading it. There is no automatic path from a submitted report to public verified information.
Submitted by an observer or member of the public. Unreviewed. Presented as a claim, never as a finding.
Assigned to an authorised officer. Corroboration and evidence are being sought. Still not a finding.
Reviewed by an authorised officer against the evidence and corroboration standard. Only at this point may it be described as verified.
Observers become accountability fellows
After elections, YEGO volunteers are transformed into democratic accountability fellows through the Governance Monitoring Platform.
The discipline that makes a guard credible at a polling unit, namely documented observation, verification before assertion and recorded decisions, is the same discipline governance monitoring requires between elections.
National reach and structuresPost-election accountability
Post-Election Accountability
After elections, YEGO volunteers are transformed into democratic accountability fellows through the Governance Monitoring Platform (GMP).
This is one of the seven interventions YEGO is structured around, and the only one that continues after the votes are counted.
The standard, the syllabus and the report
Three surfaces carry the detail behind this page: the methodology that governs conduct, the training centre that delivers the syllabus, and the reporting route for the public.
Observer methodology
The operating framework: what observers record, how reports are classified and verified, and how evidence is handled.
Read the methodology →Training centre
The modules, the assessments and the certification standard every YEGO guard has to meet before deployment.
Visit the training centre →Report an incident
How members of the public and observers submit information, and what happens to it after it is submitted.
How to report →