Ghana's electoral register is robust and ready for Election 2024 - IT Consultant

Ghana’s electoral register for the upcoming presidential and parliamentary elections is as clear as you can get, it is robust and it is ready for the elections, the IT Consultant to the Electoral Commission (EC), Dr Yaw Ofori Adjei, has stated.  

He said there were 18,772,795 valid voters on the provisional voters register ahead of the December 7 polls.

This comprises 9,690,173 females and 9,082,622 males.

Dr Ofori Adjei made this known at a special Interparty Advisory Committee (IPAC) meeting held in Accra on Tuesday (October 1, 2024).

He said the register contained 708,282 first-time voters, 131,475 special voters, and 332,110 transferred voters.

Additionally, he said the number of proxy voters currently on the register were 2,167 while the number of applicants on exceptions list and multiple registration list were 32,974 and 26,798 respectively.

• 2024 Voters register
  
• -    Valid voters - 18,772,795 
• -    Females - 9,690,173 
• -    Males - 9,082,622
• -    First-time voters - 708,282
• -    Special voters - 131,475
• -    Transferred voters - 332,110
• -    Proxy voters - 2,167

The special IPAC meeting was organised by the EC to engage registered political parties on the processes for cleaning up the voters register ahead of the December 7 polls, including a perusal of the concerns raised by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) for an independent forensic audit of the register. 

Civil society organisations (CSOs), the clergy and members of the diplomatic corps were present at the meeting as observers.

Key personalities at the meeting included the General Secretary of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Justin Kodua Frimpong; a former National Chairman of NPP and currently Director of the NPP 2024 Election Campaign, Peter Mac Manu; the Director of Elections and IT of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Dr Edward Omane Boamah; the Deputy Director of Elections and IT of NDC, Rashid Tanko Computer; the National Chairman of the Peoples National Convention (PNC), Sampson Asaki Awingobit; the General Secretary of the Convention Peoples Party (CPP), Kwame Nkrumah Botsio; the presidential candidate of the Ghana Freedom Party (GFP), Akua Donkor; and founder and leader as well as Presidential candidate of the All Peoples Congress (APC), Hassan Ayariga.

Also present were representatives of the National Democratic Party (NDP) and the Liberal Party of Ghana (LPG).

The main opposition party, NDC, staged a nationwide protest on September 17 to demand an independent forensic audit of the country’s voter register.

The party said it had identified errors in the voters for the December 7 Elections that required a clean up.

Specifically, the party said the register was fraught with irregularities that could affect about 300,000 voters and tamper with the credibility of the upcoming polls.  

As itemised by the NDC, the irregularities included 243,540 previous transfers illegally added to 2024 transfers; over 15,000 unidentifiable voter transfers paths; 3,957 names deleted from the roll; 2,094 voters transferred to different polling stations and corrupt files.

For its part, the EC said all errors that were previously identified during the voter exhibition process had been corrected.

The EC's IT Consultant, Dr Ofori-Adjei said because the electoral roll was a draft, there were legal and administrative processes established to clean the register.

Against that backdrop, the EC rejected the call for an independent forensic audit of the register as proposed by the NDC, stressing that there were legal and administrative processes needed to be exhausted to have a wholesome poll book.

The IT Consultant explained that between the registration and final register, there were robust processes that helped to identify all errors and correct them, in collaboration with the political parties and CSOs.

He said the key issues that were identified after the voter exhibition included missing voters, corrupt biometric data, people placed in wrong polling stations, accidental duplication of voters, and multiple identity cards.

Dr Adjei said all those challenges had been largely corrected and the register in its current form was in a better shape for credible elections.

However, he stressed that the processes for getting a wholesome voters register was still ongoing to get a near-perfect poll book for the elections.

"I want to emphasise that the current register is provisional and therefore, not complete; it is a register in transition and needs all stakeholders input," he said.

Reactions after EC's presentation

Graphic Online's Daniel Kenu, who was at the meeting reports that after the EC's presentation, all the smaller parties apart from the Progressive People's Party (PPP) expressed satisfaction with the presentation by the IT department in clarifying the concerns raised by the NDC.

PPP

The Executive Director of PPP, Nii Amarh Nkunim wanted to find out the causes of the missing voter list.

He said an independent audit would boost the credibility and the trust of the register.

He wanted to find out whether there was a law for an independent audit of the register.

CPP

The Coordinator of the Organisation Committee of the Convention People's Party (CPP), Yirimambo Moses Ambing, expressed concerns about the re-exhibition of the register process digitally.

He said it would be at the disadvantage of the rural folks due to Internet connectivity.

GFP

Akua Donkor, the presidential candidate of the Ghana Freedom Party descended on the NDC for alleged harassment and verbal attacks on the EC chair.

Rather, she praised Mrs Jean Mensa for her resilience and "good work" so far.

PNC

The national chairman of the People's National Convention, Samson Asaki Awingobit praised the NDC for raising the issues for them to be addressed.

He said the EC's openness and allowing for the engagement was good for deepening democracy.

NDC

In in their presentation, the NDC led by the Director of Elections, Dr Edward Omane Boamah, said the ground rules should be modified.

The party still insisted on the independent forensic audit to fix the anomaly permanently.

While reiterating that the NDC needs praises for raising the issues leading to the special IPAC meeting, he said if those involved in the illegal transfer of voters are not dealt with, political parties will have to reconvene to deal with the same issues which could be close to the election date.

He raised the issue of proxy voting alleging that many do not go through the biometric process.

"Assurance is built on trust and that trust by the EC is broken," he said.

APC

The leader of the All People's Congress, Hassan Ayariga, also a presidential candidate called for a national data system which is imputed in system.

He said the fragmented data system makes the system imperfect.

NPP

On the side of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Peter Mc Manu, recounted what the NDC said about the same register ahead of the 2016 elections.

He alleged that the NDC, which was in power at the time, rejected a call forensic audit asking, what has changed.