EC must go beyond passive press releases to address errors - CODEO

The Coalition of Domestic Election Observers (CODEO) has advised the Electoral Commission (EC) to hold a public event to address computational errors which were detected in its initial declaration of the 2020 Presidential Election results.

According to CODEO, the EC's "unfortunate" errors create room for doubt about the integrity of the presidential election results declared by the Commission on December 9, 2020, and other disputed parliamentary results.

CODEO in a press statement signed by its National Coordinator, Albert Arhin said it was not enough that the EC used a press release to clarify the errors a day after the initial declaration.

"CODEO is of the view that, given what is at stake, the EC must go beyond passive publication of a press release to hold a public event to address the underlying issues with respect to the computational errors identified, so as to allay any lingering concerns and doubts," the statement said.

"In addition, the Coalition urges the EC to ensure that source documents signed by the political parties, which support the instrument of declaration, are consistent with the tally sheet for the collation of the national results for the presidential candidates".

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Background

It will be recalled that the EC in a statement on December 10, 2020, clarified the errors in the presidential election results percentages declared on Wednesday, December 9, 2020.

The statement acknowledged that the EC Chairperson, Mrs Jean Mensa "inadvertently used 13,433,573 as the total valid votes cast."

"The total valid votes cast is 13,119,460. This does not change the percentages stated for each candidate and the declaration made by the Chairperson," the statement said.

EC’s errors did not affect CODEO’s estimates

CODEO also reiterated that the EC's errors did not affect its Parallel Vote Tabulation (PVT) estimates which stated that the Presidential election results reflected how Ghanaians voted on December 7, 2020.

According to the statement, the final results released by the EC after correcting the detected errors in the original declaration still fall within the confidence range of CODEO's estimates.

"CODEO wishes to emphasize that the post-declaration errors detected and corrected by the Electoral Commission do not in any way affect the Coalition’s PVT estimates as shared on Thursday, December 10, 2020. The PVT is based on polling station data submitted by CODEO stationary Polling Station Observers who witnessed the counting and declaration of those results, having observed the processes of voting during the course of the day.

"CODEO has absolute confidence in its PVT estimates, reaffirms the results that it has already published, and assures the public that the results declared by the EC closely match the Coalition’s PVT estimates.

"The final results released by the EC after correcting the detected errors in the original declaration still fall within the confidence range of CODEO’s PVT estimates, and thus further provides CODEO the confidence to reaffirm its position on the PVT estimates (Refer to CODEO’s Press release on the PVT)".

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