Africa Check builds website to check election promises by presidents

Razaq Babs

Africa Check, the continent’s first, independent fact-checking organisation launched in 2012, is building a promise tracker – the African Election Promise Tracker to help citizens hold their presidents and prime ministers accountable for the promises.

“If politicians see they have to keep the promises they made to get elected, it will transform the world we all live in”, said Peter Cunliffe-Jones, Executive Director of Africa Check.

“Schools, roads and hospitals will be built in bricks and mortar, and not remain as paper promises. That is why we want to track promises made by leaders elected in four key countries: South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria and Senegal”, he added.

The African Election Promise Tracker will take the form of a website that allows users to log election promises made by their presidents or prime ministers during their campaigns. Africa Check will track these promises, reporting back to the public on whether these promises have been kept or broken.

In order to make the African Election Promise Tracker a reality, Africa Check is running a crowdfunding campaign through the GivenGain platform, until 30 November 2017. We’ve set a target of R260,000, or $20,000, which will allow us to build this tool.

Everyone who contributes to the campaign will be among the first to view the promise tracker tool, which is scheduled to be launched in early 2018.

“We are asking supporters to donate and share the campaign with their networks. Help Africa Check contribute towards improving transparency and accountability in Africa – holding up to scrutiny the election promises that have been made by the continent’s leaders.” said Cunliffe-Jones.