The Electoral Commission of Ghana has indicated that it is still working on the voter register for the December 7, 2024 general elections, stressing that the call for a forensic audit is “therefore premature.”
According to the EC, compiling a new voter roll is a process and each step must be allowed to go through to the end.
“I want to state at this point that these [processes] have not been exhausted and it is the position of the Commission that the call for forensic audit is, therefore, premature,” EC chair Jean Mensa said.
The EC indicated that the register is provisional and thus affords the Commission the opportunity to right the wrongs.
The Chairperson of the Commission, Jean Adukwei Mensa, addressed political parties and other election stakeholders on Tuesday, October 1, 2024 at the Inter-Party Advisory Committee’s (IPAC) meeting, which was telecast live for the first time.
She, however, stated that “as a Commission, we can confidently state that most of the discrepancies discovered up to date have been resolved.”
Jean Mensa further said claims that the discrepancies discovered in the register were aimed at disenfranchising some voters were untrue.
“It is important to emphasise that the register in question is provisional. As its name suggests, it is a draft. It is not the final voter register. It is not perfect and it is not final,” the EC boss asserted.
PROCESS
Giving the detailed steps, the EC chairperson said right after the registration exercise, they constituted the District Registration Review Committees, which sit in all districts to hear challenged cases presented by the citizenry.
Thereafter, she said the process moves to adjudication, where political parties work with the EC IT team to determine whether individuals have engaged in multiple registrations.
Furthermore, she said the EC holds an exhibition of the provisional register, which allows for an inspection and correction of discrepancies.
Afterward, the EC Chairperson said the Commission has a sitting of District Registration Review Officers – who are Magistrates appointed by the Chief Justice to every district, to hear and rule on cases, including objections to individuals on the voter register.
“It is followed by a verification of the implementation of these decisions by our regional directorates, headed by our regional directors.
“Following that, we at the head office compose a team made up of IT and Electoral services who then verify that all the decisions and recommendations provided have been fully implemented. It is after this stage that the voter register is produced,” Jean Mensah added.
However, she stressed that since these steps have not been completed, calls for a forensic audit of the register are ‘premature’.
The EC did a PowerPoint presentation that showed the current state of the register and also addressed the issues raised by the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC).
While the EC admitted that some of the concerns raised by the NDC were genuine, such as corrupted files, the Commission insisted that the discrepancies have been worked on, and will reflect in the final voter register.
PARTIES AT IPAC
The political parties at the IPAC meeting, on Tuesday, took turns in expressing their opinions on the voter register, which was the subject of the meeting.
The Director of IT for the NDC, Dr. Edward Omane Boamah, said following the presentation by the EC, the Commission was “only mopping a leaking roof and not fixing the problem.”
He argued that the entire system of the EC must be audited and the issues fixed rather than mopping the surface.
Speaking for the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), Peter Mac Manu recalled that nine years down memory lane, the NDC, which was then in power, did not support the move by the NPP to audit the register, as the NDC at the time said the register was “fit for purpose.”
He opined that the EC was following the law “and that the presentation by the EC was fair.”
Dr. Hassan Ayariga, of the All People’s Congress (APC), blamed the problem with the voter register on the political actors.
He argued that it was the same parties that orchestrated to have minors and foreigners on the register, apart from masterminding the illegal transfers and then turned around to cry foul.
He then advocated a system where every Ghanaian who attains the voting age would automatically be enrolled on the register, without the EC necessarily fixing dates for that exercise.
Meanwhile, the EC also announced at Tuesday’s IPAC meeting that it will re-exhibit the provisional register in the coming days, before the final one is produced.
