The Electoral Commission has asked all political parties and other stakeholders in the general election to trust it to deliver a credible register and elections.
“We assure you and the good people of Ghana, we are working tirelessly to ensure that the 2024 Election is free, fair, credible and transparent,” the Chairperson of the EC, Jean Mensa, stated.
“As the body mandated by Article 45 (a) of the 1992 Constitution to compile the register of voters and to revise it at such periods as may be determined by law, we urge you to trust us to perform our functions as enshrined in the Constitution,” she averred and stressed that “we will not fail you and we will not disappoint you.”
Mrs Mensa was speaking at a special Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC) meeting in Accra yesterday to provide an update on the voters register for the December 7 general election.
The EC also used the meeting to speak to concerns raised by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) for a forensic audit of the electoral roll.
The main opposition party, NDC, staged a nationwide protest on September 17, this year, to demand an independent forensic audit of the country’s voters register.
The party said it had identified errors in the voters register going into the December 7 polls that required cleaning up.
IPAC meeting
The IPAC meeting was organised by the EC to engage registered political parties on the process for cleaning up the voters register ahead of the December 7 polls.
Civil society organisations (CSOs), the clergy and members of the diplomatic corps also attended the meeting as observers.
The EC Chairperson was flanked by the Deputy Chairman of the EC in charge of Operations, Samuel Tettey, and the Deputy Chairman in charge of Corporate Services, Dr Eric Bossman Asare.
Robust cleaning system
Mrs Mensa emphasised that the register in question was a provisional one in the process of being perfected, adding that Constitutional Instrument (C.I.) 91, which governed national elections in the country, recognised the provisional voters register (PVR) as a draft and bound to contain discrepancies.
However, C.I. 91, she said, had instituted the mechanism of the exhibition exercise to allow for the cleaning and revision of the PVR to ensure that it was credible and robust for an election.
Mrs Mensa enumerated a tall list of the process towards cleaning the register, including its display in all Polling Stations (Exhibition Centres) and via electronic media to allow for its inspection and correction where necessary.
The EC chairperson said the same approach was adopted by the commission prior to the production of the final register in 2020 and it worked effectively.
“Evidence shows that despite the concerns raised about the effectiveness of the register to deliver credible elections, there were no voters who were denied the opportunity to vote during the 2020 elections.
Mrs Mensa said it was the same approach the EC had adopted to clean the 2024 PVR and, therefore, had no doubt that it would deliver the same outcome, namely “a credible and robust Final Voters Register ahead of the 2024 elections”.
Transparency
Mrs Mensa said in the spirit of transparency and accountability, the commission would in the coming days re-exhibit the PVR online.
“We have developed an online platform to allow voters to review their registration at no cost to voters,” she said.
The EC would also provide a period within which voters would be able to report discrepancies with their registration details in districts where they registered as voters and have them resolved.
Mrs Mensa urged voters to review their details and present any discrepancies they might have to the commission.
“We assure the citizens that issues that negatively affect them will be addressed. This process will certainly guarantee a further cleaning of the register,” the EC chairperson assured.
The commission also pledged to provide all the political parties with copies of the revised PVR to give them the opportunity to review it and report any discrepancies they may find.
“We urge the political parties to see this as a national assignment and not a partisan assignment. Let us all put Ghana first and put our hands to the plough to collectively clean the PVR and to ensure that it is fit for the 2024 elections,” Mrs Mensa appealed.
She added that the EC had developed a template to allow political parties to report discrepancies in the register to it.
“It is in our interest to produce a credible and robust final register and a transparent, fair and credible general election. We did this in 2020 – we urge you to trust us to do it again,” Mrs Mensa stated.
She stressed that the EC was respected globally for its ability to perform its functions and as a result it did not require external assistance to conduct the elections.
Number update
The Information Technology (IT) Consultant to the EC, Dr Yaw Ofori-Adjei, stated the country’s electoral register was as clean as anyone could get, robust and ready for the 2024 elections.
He said after correcting errors that emanated from the voter registration and exhibition exercises, there were now 18,772,795 valid voters on the provisional voters register for the December 7 polls.
“This comprises 9,690,173 females and 9,082,622 males,” Dr Ofori-Adjei stated.
The IT Consultant said the register contained 708,282 first-time voters, 131,475 special voters, and 332,110 transferred voters.
Additionally, he said, the number of proxy voters on the register were 2,167, while the number of applicants on exceptions and multiple registration lists were 32,974 and 26,798 respectively.
Key issues
Dr Ofori-Adjei said the key issues that were identified after the voter exhibition included missing voters, corrupt biometric data, people placed in wrong polling stations, accidental duplication of voters and multiple identity cards.
He explained that between the registration and final register, there were robust processes that helped to identify all errors and correct them, in collaboration with the political parties and CSOs.
Dr Ofori-Adjei said challenges that were identified had been largely corrected and the register in its current form was in a better shape for credible elections.
However, he stressed that the process for getting a wholesome voters register was still ongoing to get a near-perfect poll book for the elections.
Attendance
Key personalities at the meeting included the General Secretary of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Justin Frimpong Kodua; the Deputy Director of Elections and IT of NDC,
Dr Rashid Computer Sofo Tanko; the National Chairman of the People’s National Convention (PNC), Sampson Asaki Awingobit; Kwame Nkrumah Botsio of the Convention People’s Party (CPP); the flag bearer of Ghana Freedom Party (GFP), Akua Donkor; and founder and leader of the All Peoples Congress (APC), Hassan Ayariga.
Also present were the flag bearer of the National Democratic Party (NDP), Alhaji Mohammed Frimpong, and the presidential candidate of the Liberal Party of Ghana (LPG), Kofi Akpaloo.
Comments
Apart from Progress People’s Party (PPP), all the smaller parties expressed satisfaction with the presentation by the IT Consultant to the EC, especially for clarifying the concerns raised by the NDC.
The Executive Director of the PPP, Nii Amarh Nkunim, raised concerns about the causes of the missing voters list and said an independent audit would boost the credibility and the trust of the register.
The Coordinator, Organisation Committee of CPP, Yirimambo Moses Ambing, expressed concerns about the EC’s decision to re-exhibit the register online.
He said it would be at the disadvantage of the rural folks due to internet connectivity.
The National Chairman of the People’s National Convention (PNC), Samson Asaki Awingobit, commended the NDC for raising the issues to be addressed.
A former National Chairman of the NPP, Peter Mac Manu, recounted what the NDC said about the same register ahead of the 2016 general election.
He alleged that the NDC, which was in power at the time, rejected a call for forensic audit and asked if anything had changed.
NDC’s response
In its presentation, the NDC, led by its Director of Elections and IT, Dr Edward Omane Boamah, said the presentation by the EC’s IT Consultant, which admitted some voter transfers were made illegally, had solidified the party’s position that there was the need for a forensic audit of the commission’s IT system.
He stressed that rather than “mopping the floor always,” it was important to “fix the roof and mop the floor.”
Dr Omane Boamah said the party would convene a meeting to discuss the outcome of the special IPAC meeting and communicate its decision to members of the public.
Source: Graphiconline