Statement: A Flawed Provisional Voter Register: The Need for an Independent Forensic Audit Guarantee Transparent, Credible and Peaceful December 2024 Election

It has been observed that since the appointments of Dr Eric Bossman Asare, a former NPP TESCON patron, as deputy commissioner of the EC, as well as Dr Peter Appiahene and Hajia Salima Ahmed Thiani, both of whom are very well-known NPP card bearing members as commissioners at the Electoral Commission, a number of strange, contentious proposals and decisions have been made that have thrown overboard the motto of the Commission which is TRANSPARENCY, FAIRNESS AND INTERGRITY.

The Center for Ethical Governance and Administration (CEGA), together with other Civil Society Organizations, peace-loving Ghanaians, and some opposition political parties protested against these appointments, but the President who made these appointments on the advice of the Council of State, felt they were in order. The Council of State, unfortunately responded that, there was nothing wrong with the appointments of the commissioners because, to the Council, it only considered their qualification and not their political affiliation, and we consider this unfortunate

What has been witnessed so far has proven beyond all doubt that our disagreement with their appointments into the EC was in fact a genuine concern. Ever since they joined the Commission, almost every action taken by the EC has pointed to an agenda for voter suppression, disenfranchisement and corrupted voter register, all of which flout Article 42 of the 1992 Constitution.

In 2022, the EC proposed a new Constitutional Instrument (C.I) to replace the existing C.I 91 and C.I 126 to make the Ghana Card (ECOWAS CARD) the sole document for the registration of potential voters. This was against the promise by the same EC not to go that way as it would disenfranchise many potential voters. This was because there were over 2.5 million cards belonging to some registered voters that had not yet been printed. In addition, there were over 3.5 million printed cards that had been seized by a private printing company because the National Identification Authority (NIA) had not been able to settle its indebtedness to the company.

Again, the ECs decision to make its district offices the only centres for the recently conducted limited registration exercises instead of the polling stations, as well as the attempted cancelation of the Guarantor System for the purpose of proving one’s identity and eligibility to be registered as a voter, were all bizarre decisions which give cause for worry. Another bizarre decision of the EC which defied logic was its proposition to close polls at 3.00 pm instead of the previous 5.00 pm.

Furthermore, the EC proposed to ban the use of indelible ink used previously as a means to check multiple-voting.

The recent release of the 2024 Provisional Voter Register to political parties was characterized by some suspicious issues. The agreed time to release copies of the voter register to political parties was not respected by the EC. When the register was finally released to the political parties, highly suspicious anomalies including, massive transfer of voters to new polling stations without the knowledge of the prospective voters were detected from the register. Besides this, names of thousands of registered voters had been mysteriously deleted.

The voter population in some polling stations were found to have been increased in multiples, while names of a large number of deceased voters were detected in the register. These discovered anomalies could be the tip of the iceberg. Unfortunately, the request made by the NDC to meet with the EC in the presence of the media for live broadcast to sort out the issues was rejected, thus giving the cause for suspicion that the EC has something to hide. For the sake of transparency, the NDC requested the EC for the EC to allow for an independent forensic audit was also rejected completely.

Meanwhile, the same EC under Mrs. Charlotte Osei permitted forensic audit of the voters register when the NPP requested such an exercise in 2015, ahead of the 2016 elections. The audit was done by the KPMG. It is, therefore, untenable the claim by the current crop of Commissioners of the EC that forensic of that nature had not been done before. One would have thought a Commission, whose motto is Transparency, Fairness and Integrity would have given in to this harmless demand by the NDC.

Considering the EC’s intransigence and the current happenings at the EC, the CEGA wonders whether there could not be a linkage between the appointments of known NPP activists to the Commission, the missing seven Biometric Verification Devices and the corrupted Provisional Voter Register? What is intriguing is the complete silence of the NPP and the Moral society on this saga which has the potential not only to derail the December 7, 2024 elections but can be a recipe for electoral violence in the country.

In view of this, the CEGA is calling on the NPP and all other registered political parties, Civil Society Organizations, the Peace Council, the Clergy and Traditional Authorities to join the NDC to find an amicable solution to this worrying situation. The E.C should not hide behind their supposedly independent status and plunge the nation into chaos but rather take into consideration their motto of transparency, fairness and integrity and allow independent forensic audit of the Provisional Voter Register, re-open it for exhibition at all polling stations in good time, to ensure transparent, credible peaceful December 7, 2024 election.

Signed

Prof Ohene Adjei

Executive Director

0208124706

Mr. George Yankah

Communications Director

0242161111