Pusiga EC official suspended for unauthorised voter transfer

The Electoral Commission (EC) has assured that it will not shield any of its officers, both permanent and temporary, found complicit in any electoral malpractices and will always allow such persons to face the full rigors of the law.

The assurance followed alleged voter transfers which came to light during the exhibition of provisional voters register.

The said transfers, was done without the consent of the affected voters from two polling stations in two constituencies in the Tamale South and one polling station in the Sagnarigu constituency to the Pusiga constituency in the Upper East region.

Per the provision of the law, the registered voter must be physically present to request for the transfer of vote to another polling station. 

"The transfer of vote can only be done at the district offices and requires the presence of the voter which must be verified using either his or her face or fingerprints," Deputy Chairman in charge of Corporate Services, Dr Bossman Asare, told a press conference in Accra on Monday.

He said after concluding it's preliminary investigations, the voters alluded to the fact that their voter ID cards were collected by one Haruna Muniru ostensibly for the processing of a loan. 

The said Haruna Muniru was in Police was arrested by the police last week and is currently on bail.

The investigation revealed that voter transfers were indeed effected for 38 individuals using the credentials of an EC official. 

"The records of those transfers are captured in the Voter Management System’s (VMS) audit logs.

A look at the verification done during the transfer process shows that photos of the voters from their voter ID cards were used for facial verification and to effect the transfers," Dr Asare said at the EC's 'Let the citizens know'.

He said while the Commission does not have any evidence to believe that the occurrence is widespread, it has instituted investigations to ascertain if similar incidents occurred elsewhere beyond the reported case in the Tamale South and Sagnarigu constituencies. 

"Any such transfers will be reversed and the perpetrators of such acts shall be dealt with according to the law," he said.

Transfer 

The commission has suspended the Pusiga district electoral officer and has invited him to respond to the Commission’s findings.

Dr Asare said the provisional voters register was not the final voters register. 

He explained that the central objective of the exhibition exercise was to correct any anomalies before the final register was produced.

The Deputy Commissioner assured the public that, after the exhibition exercise, the final register will be robust and credible.

Voters list

He said the exhibited register contained transferred voters list and an absent voters list for each polling station. 

According to him the absent voters list should contain a list of all voters that have been transferred out of a particular polling station within the period that the EC opened up the register for transfers and special voting.

He said the absent voters list should contain only voters who have transferred their votes and those partaking in special voting. 

"The transferred voters list conversely contains all voters who have been transferred to the polling station within that period," he said.

The deputy commissioner explained that in the preparations towards this year's exhibition exercise, the absent voters list and the transferred voters list were inadvertently included in transfers that had been done since 2020 when this register was first prepared. 

"This has resulted in a higher-than-expected number of absent and transferred Voters.

"This understandably may have caused some anxiety to our stakeholders, as exemplified by the press conference addressed by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the Ajumako-Enyan-Esiam Constituency of the Central region. The Commission has corrected this anomaly and will share with all the political parties the corrected absent and transferred voters list for each polling station that contains only those applicants who successfully applied for transfers or special voting for the 2024 general elections," Dr Bossman Asare said.

He said it was untrue that the commission has added names to the voters register in a bid to rig the elections for a particular party. 

"The EC has no intention of bloating the register to give any political party advantage," he said.

"The Commission has nothing to hide. The Provisional voters register is a public document on display and is available online for voters to access in order to verify their details. This is not a secret document. At the end of the day, the final register will be made available to all the political parties, as per the law and normal practice," he assured.