The Deputy Director of Elections and IT for the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Dr. Tanko Rashid Computer, has noted he was aware that the Electoral Commission (EC) was acting in bad faith when it decided to exclude agents of the political parties from participating in the ongoing vote transfer exercise.
The EC had explained that the order was to avoid the possible clash between the agents as it occurred at some places in the early hours of Sunday, June 02, 2024, when the exercise began.
However, the NDC, which had strictly opposed to the decision alleged that the move was a ploy by the EC and ruling party to gerrymander the process.
But in a statement signed by the Deputy Director of Research, Monitoring and Evaluation, Fred Tetteh Tuesday, June 04, the EC said the reason to rescind the decision stemmed from concerns from stakeholders following its initial decision.
“Following internal discussions and in consideration of the concerns of some stakeholders, the Commission has decided to revert to its decision made at IPAC.
“The Commission has directed its Officers at the Districts to allow Agent of Political Parties to observe the Transfer of Votes Exercise with effect from tomorrow Wednesday, 5th June, 2024,” portions of the release read.
Reacting to the issue, Dr. Computer told TV3’s Alfred Ocansey on Ghana Tonight that although the C.I. does not state that party agents should be allowed to monitor the process, they agreed at IPAC to allow that for the sake of transparency.
“So, when they said they will not allow our agents through their memo, I knew very well that they were acting in very bad faith and that is why we told them yesterday [Monday, June 0] in the IPAC meeting and we quoted copiously, C.I. 91 and C.I. 127 to back our argument that there is a need to have our agents there so that this suspicion that people are going to alter electoral boundaries in order to gain advantage over each other will be a thing of the past,” he indicated.
Dr. Computer continued that the development is a welcoming news for the NDC since they know the monitoring will allow a transparent process which will broaden their chances on winning the polls.
“So, to us it’s a welcoming news. We have taken it in good faith. That is why we have been pushing all along to sanitise the electoral system not give undue advantage to any other person because as a political party, our aim is not to cheat somebody and we also don’t want to somebody to cheat us. We want free, fair and transparent elections and I’m sure with this, we are going to win the elections hands down,” he was confident.
