In advance of this Saturday’s elections in Afghanistan, The National Democratic Institute (NDI) launched its 2014 Election Data site with pre-election maps showing all polling stations across the country, what is open and closed, and where observers are going to be deployed.

Observer Deployments

For the first time in Afghanistan, you can view the deployment plans of Afghanistan’s largest election monitoring groups, giving a unified picture of election monitoring across every district.

Four Afghan election monitoring organizations will field 15,384 observers.

The deployments for the four largest domestic election monitoring groups are mapped, including: Afghanistan National Participation Organization (ANPO); the Afghanistan Youth National and Social Organization (AYNSO); the Transparent Foundation for Free and Fair Elections in Afghanistan (TEFA); and Free and Fair Election Foundation of Afghanistan (FEFA). This data helps to deter fraud and increase confidence in the observation effort.

Polling Centers

All 5,423 planned polling centers are mapped, including the 352 planned polling centers that were recently closed. The distribution of polling stations provides context for understanding the deployment of observers. A population layer shows where polling station closures are likely to have the greatest impact.

Open Data

The site provides all pre-election datasets for download, including polling center data from the Independent Election Commission of Afghanistan, and observer deployment plans from participating organizations.