IPAC Exposes NDC Again

Dr. Rashid Tanko-Computer

 

The Electoral Commission (EC) has cautioned political parties as well as independent presidential candidates to exercise restraint in their remarks on issues bothering the provisional voters’ register (PVR) and related matters in an attempt to discredit the Commission.

IT Consultant to the EC, Dr. Ofori Adjei, made the call following some allegations made by the Deputy Director of Elections and IT for the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Dr. Rashid Tanko-Computer, that the revised provisional voters’ register re-exhibited online by the EC still contains discrepancies which produced double identities for individuals who verified their details online.

The NDC representative, who was still not convinced with the explanations provided by the EC, offered three names to substantiate the alleged double identity of persons on EC’s online exhibition system after purporting to have tried it with some registered voters’ ID cards.

But the EC after a quick check on their IT system, disclosed that the claims by the NDC that those names were registered voters with multiple identities were false.

According to the IT Consultant, those names were individuals whose ID cards were replaced with new ones when the Commission detected the anomaly in the 2020 election.

The Head of IT, after demonstrating how the online verification system works following another accusation by the NDC representative to discredit the EC, advised them to produce evidence of allegations they may find with EC’s processes in the lead up to the December 7 elections.

The opposition NDC last month called for an independent forensic audit of the 2024 provisional voters’ register and the IT systems used for voters’ registration, data transfers among other demands, and proceeded with a demonstration in some parts of the country.

But the EC and some representatives of political parties at the last Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC) meeting rejected calls for a forensic audit of the register, saying the legal and administrative processes established to clean the register have not been fully exhausted, hence, the call for a forensic audit was needless.

Among some of the major discussions at the IPAC meeting yesterday include discussions on the re-exhibition of the provisional voters’ register which started yesterday, October 15, and will end on Saturday, October 19, 2024.

According to the EC, the exhibition will provide opportunities for voters to verify their details online and on the Commission’s website, as well as report any discrepancy to their respective districts where they registered for correction before the final certified voters’ register is made public.

Political parties were also provided with a template to enable them document discrepancies they may find with the revised provisional voters’ register.

According to the EC chairperson, Jean Mensa, the re-exhibition exercise is the first time the Commission has given opportunity for voters to verify their details for correction as part of efforts to enable the Commission have a near perfect voters’ register for the December 7 general election.

She said the Commission would no longer receive complaints on discrepancies from the general public and the political parties after Saturday, October 19, 2024, though voters would still continue to verify their details online and on the Commission’s website.

The EC chairperson said the Commission has also presented the ballot statistics to the political parties ahead of the printing of ballots which will start today, as it took into account the total number of registered voters on the revised provisional voters’ register with a two percent margin of error.

Present at the meeting were all registered political parties including the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Convention People’s Party (CPP), Liberal Party of Ghana (LPG), Ghana Freedom Party (GFP), Progressive Alliance for Ghana (PAG), All People’s Congress (APC), National Democratic Congress (NDC), Ghana Union Movement (GUM), Great Consolidated Popular Party (GCPP), People’s National Convention (PNC), Progressive People’s Party (PPP) and National Democratic Party (NDP).

Also present were civil society organisations, members of the diplomatic community and other dignitaries.

 

By Ebenezer K. Amponsah

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