The opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) has rejected claims by the Electoral Commission (EC) that the errors recorded in the voters’ register were genuine mistakes and not meant to aid any rigging.
The NDC had earlier accused the Commission of deliberately transferring people from their place of voting to other centres whilst they were not aware of the development.
The party issued a statement and demanded the Commission to explain to the public how those errors came about. In a press conference addressed by the Deputy Chairman of the EC in charge of Corporate Services, Dr Eric Bossman Asare, he admitted that although there were errors, those were not intentional and also to aid any rigging as the NDC alleged.
“Preliminary investigations by the Commission have revealed that voter transfers were indeed effected for Thirty-Eight (38) individuals using the credentials of an Electoral Commission 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 transfer,” he disclosed.
“It is also absolutely untrue that the Commission has added names to the Voters Register in a bid to rig the elections for a particular party. Those allegations are without merit and should be disregarded by the Public. The EC has no intention of bloating the register to give any political party advantage over the other,” Dr. Asare added.
But, Dr. Rashid Tanko-Computer, the Deputy Director of Elections and IT for the NDC, has said that the EC “did a similar thing during the proxy window. Nobody went through biometric processes to get his proxy through. I’m speaking with confidence and I told them in IPAC that you people, what you’re doing is illegal, your people are accepting proxy’s on the field without people going through biometric processes.”
Speaking on Ghana Tonight with Alfred Ocansey Monday, September 02, 2024, Dr. Tanko-Computer said the EC is supposed to praise the NDC for bringing it closer to the issues on the grounds rather than saying the register is robust and credible.
He has suggested that the Commission was aware of the discrepancies in the register but chose to issue statements upon statements defending the integrity of the roll.
“That’s the liveliness check we are talking about, it’s in the C.I. And I told them your IT department is not helping matters and they must sit up. Today, the chickens have come home to roost. They have accepted their guilt and instead of them to congratulate the NDC for bringing them closer to reality, they were rather talking about robust register.
“How do you call a register robust and credible when your people are at the district office and illegally transferring people from one constituency to another? And you are saying that you’re now investigating, so you knew that all along all the statements that they put out about credibility was a farce,” he maintained.
