A new and innovate approach to election observation is being undertaken for the first time in Egypt – and the Arab World - for the Parliamentary Elections. This exercise enhances traditional observation by using statistical principles and information & communications technology to provide more precise information on the conduct of an election in real time. For these elections, Project “Rakeeb” is deploying observers across Egypt to a statistically-sound, random, and representative sample of polling stations drawn by a trained statistician. The observers will transmit their observation reports to the Central Data Center via text messages using their mobile phones. This exercise will enable Project “Rakeeb” to provide more timely, systematic and representative information on the voting process. In cases where ballots are counted provisionally at the polling station level, this exercise allows for verification of the accuracy of the official results announced by the election commission.