Accra, Dec. 04, GNA – Penplusbytes, a not-for profit organisation, in collaboration with the Ghana Federation of Disability Organisations (GFDO) is to roll out the “All Media Tracking Centre (AMTC)” system to help monitor the 2020 general elections.
The AMTC is an advanced version of the Social Media Tracking Centre (SMTC), as an early warning system, deployed by Penplusbytes during the 2016 elections, to monitor and respond in real-time, reports emanating from social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and others, as well as SMS, WhatsApp and traditional news outlets.
“So what we are doing in 2020 is a scale up of the 2016 SMTC, which we are calling, an all media centre platform, which will not only look at issues on social media but will involve monitoring of the work of traditional media, including those here and elsewhere”, Ms Juliet Amoah, Executive Director, Penplusbytes, said in an interview with the Ghana News Agency.
The elections tracking programme was being funded by Star Ghana Foundation, she said.
According to Ms Amoah, from Sunday, December 6, to Tuesday December 8, and until the elections result was declared, the AMTC platform would be rolled out to identify what was trending and quickly detect possible election irregularities or instances of violence that warranted further attention.”
Cases would then be communicated to the National Security Task Force, the Electoral Commission, elections observers, and any other appropriate quarters for the corresponding actions.
“Penplusbytes will pass the information on to the EC for action, and through the rapid citizen feedback, gathered through social media, problems that may trigger security incidents will be quickly resolved, contributing to a peaceful election”, Ms Amoah said.
She also explained that the AMTC would help track the mood of the populace; whether it was towards violence, or towards peace and what salient issues they were looking at.
She said another key component of the ATMC system was the introduction of a “Tipahya” (I am Part) software, which is able to present trends grouped around voting logistics, violence, political parties, and others.
The Tipahya online platform has a PWD function that would allowed persons with disabilities, either visually impaired or deaf, to go online to access any information, regarding the elections.
There is also a survey component on the platform where people could participate in to know which political party’ manifesto or programmes of action would address their development needs.
The technology would also store data for an in-depth post-election analysis of the various media platforms.
GNA