Everyone talks about politics in Africa whether offline or online but only a few end up doing the real voting.
Google today launched an online portal expected to encourage eligible voters to come out and vote on Election Day using the ‘Pledge to Vote’ feature which allows visitors to publicly commit to vote via personalized #pledgetovote badges which can be downloaded and shared with their friends and the public via social media.
According to Google’s Communications and Public Affairs Manager for Nigeria, Taiwo Kola-Ogunlade,“We think that by sharing pictures and images of their badges with friends or acquaintances on Facebook and other social media, they too may be encouraged to make a pledge. The more people who commit, the greater the voter turnout and the better Nigeria’s democracy would be for it”.
Though the pledge to vote is a new campaign, it’s not the first time that Google has launched an Election Hub for a country, the concept was first launched in 2007, and has since had over 40 editions including during the 2013 Ghana and Kenya polls.
Google’s Election Hubs act as one-stop portals for data on candididates, parties and events involved in and centered around the Elections. The portals have both news and features and audiovisual content on the political parties and their candidates and announcements from the Independent National Electoral Commission accessible via desktop or with tablets and mobile phones.
Kola-Ogunlade added, “The Internet continues to play an increasingly major role in the way political parties and voters take part in elections in Africa. Today, it’s easier for voters to actively take part in the electoral process because they now have faster access to news and information relating to the process.
The site will be powered by Storyful, aggregating important news and information on the elections in one place.