The demands being made by the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) for the Electoral Commission (EC) to conduct a forensic audit of the voters’ register is not something that can be overlooked.
A Political Science lecturer at the University of Ghana, Dr. Kwame Asah-Asante, who is making the comments says the concerns being raised by the parties show they have lost trust in the election management body.
Adding that trust remains paramount in every democracy, particularly, in elections, the political scientist has advised that the EC conducts itself well to build the trust of the people.
Citing issues regarding illegal transfer of votes, amongst others, according to Dr. Asah-Asante, as key to determining the integrity of the elections which the EC must address to alley suspicions of other stakeholders.
“…because the issues that the NDC are raising relative to the problems with the register, they’re are not things that can be swept under the carpet. They are talking about illegal transfer of votes, the fact that people also tampered with the system and certain numbers that are associated with the illegal transfer and the rest of them,” he said on Ghana Tonight Monday, September 23, 2024.
“I think the best way out is that, call for the audit, audit it and all the key actors will be happy with that,” he added.
His comments follow the NDC’s impasse with the Electoral Commission over the voters’ register which the party insists has been bloated despite the Commission’s assurance of its credibility and robustness.
The National Democratic Congress (NDC) on Tuesday, September 17, 2024 hit the streets across all the regions in the country and presented a petition to the EC’s regional offices demanding a forensic audit of the voters’ roll.
The NDC had said that the integrity of the roll had been compromised, having detected some illegal transfer of voters from one constituency to the other without the knowledge of the persons involved.
After presenting its evidence to the EC, the Commission told the NDC that the errors have all been rectified.
Meanwhile, the NDC is asking the Commission to involve a third party to conduct a forensic audit, saying there are more illegal transfers, amid the EC’s refusal to provide evidence of what it claims it has corrected after the attention was drawn to the anomalies.
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