Disruption in Internet services will not affect 2024 elections — EC

The process for declaration of both presidential and parliamentary elections results is done manually and, therefore, any disruption in internet services will not affect the 2024 general election, the Director of Electoral Services at the Electoral Commission (EC), Dr Serebour Quaicoe has said.

Dr Quaicoe has therefore allayed the fears and concerns expressed by some Ghanaians that the recent Internet disruption if experienced on the election day might have affected the outcome of the polls.

“Our results declaration process is basically manual.

 The Biometric Verification Devices use SD cards with the data on them and they don’t use Internet so there is no way the 2024 elections will be affected if there are issues with Internet connectivity as being experienced now,” Dr Quaicoe told the Daily Graphic.

Collation of results

Throwing more light on what was done on the election day, Dr Quaicoe explained that after the close of polls counting of the ballots cast were done by the EC officials without any Internet connection, hence there was no way the disruption in Internet service would affect the election.

“So, the election day has nothing to do with Internet connectivity,” he stated.

He explained further that the collation of the results was done using a computer without Internet connectivity to expedite the process more efficiently.

“The officers will physically send the results to the collation centres, and the results will be collated manually on the access sheet, which has no Internet connectivity.

The region will also do the collation just using the computer without Internet connectivity,” he said.

Dr Quaicoe therefore urged the general public not to panic about the recent Internet disruption because it would not affect the 2024 elections as perceived by some members of the public.

Recall

Last Thursday, there was disruption in Internet service nationwide which affected banking services, academic work in tertiary institutions, riding services among others.

Some Ghanaians in an interview during the shutdown of the Internet expressed varied opinions with some wondering how things would have been if it was December 7 and the nation was voting.

In its latest updates, the National Communications Authority (NCA) said it recognised the impact the disruptions had had on economic, academic and social activities, and assured the public of its commitment to continue collaborating with relevant stakeholders.

“We expect some improvement in data services in the coming days while the operators work around the clock to restore full connectivity,” the NCA said in a statement.

It said following a crunch meeting with all four subsea cable landing service providers and the three local mobile network operators (MNOs), there was now some clarity about the exact location of the damage, and that preparations were underway to dispatch repair vessels to the location for physical assessment and restoration.