Director of Elections and IT for the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Dr. Edward Omane Boamah has reminded the Electoral Commission (EC) to honor its commitment to releasing the voter’s register to political parties.
This reminder follows an Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC) meeting held last Tuesday, where the EC promised to release the register by today, October 8, 2024.
Dr. Boamah highlighted the importance of the voters’ register in ensuring transparency and fairness ahead of the 2024 general elections.
In a Facebook post on Tuesday, October, 8, 2024, Dr. Omane Boamah, emphasized that timely access to the register would allow political parties to verify voter data and resolve any discrepancies before the elections.
He warned that failure to meet the deadline could cause unnecessary tension and erode trust in the electoral process. Dr. Omane Boamah called on the EC to meet its obligation and uphold the integrity of the election timeline.
He further urged the EC to enhance communication with political parties and other key stakeholders to prevent delays and misunderstandings in the run-up to the December 7 elections.
READ FULL STATEMENT BELOW
Reminding the Electoral Commission of their Promise After the Special IPAC Meeting
Exactly one week ago, the National Democratic Congress published our
position on the 2024 Provisional Voters Register and the EC’s IT System in a press statement.
The press statement was a sequel to the Special Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC) meeting that was held on Tuesday, 1st October 2024, to deliberate on the 2024 Provisional Voters Register at the Alisa Hotel.
Needless to state, the live coverage of that IPAC meeting followed a demand we made ahead of the meeting.
You may all recall that in responding to our findings, the Electoral Commission in the full glare of the cameras, Ghanaians, and the international community shamefully admitted to significant errors that relate to systemic manipulation of the 2024 register.
These errors are not mere mistakes!
For emphasis, the Commission admits to:
- Criminal transfer of voters due to the absence of liveliness test.
- Presence of corrupted files that the Commission suggests have been rectified and restored,
- Erroneous addition of previous transfers to the current 2024 transfers,
- Deleted voters who the Commission wishes to place on a Missing Voters register, and
- A vulnerable EC IT system that is susceptible to systemic manipulation of data and infiltration from officials and non-officials who have access to login credentials.
With this background, the Functional Executive Committee of the NDC deliberated and decided to accept the EC’s promise to release to political parties, the updated version of the 2024 Provisional Voters Register for scrutiny.
We also accepted the decision to re-exhibit the register but strongly recommended that the re-exhibition exercise should be conducted both online and offline at the exhibition centres.
We further demanded a multi-stakeholder and interparty audit of the IT system of the Electoral Commission of Ghana in order to identify and address vulnerabilities that can be exploited by criminals to compromise the integrity of the December 07, 2024 presidential and parliamentary elections.
Since then, a series of additional sensitive and intense high-profile multi-stakeholder internal and external engagements have taken place with the view to securing Ghana’s democracy.
The ball is in the court of the Electoral Commission and the Akufo-Addo Bawumia led NPP government that seeks to destroy Ghana’s democracy through dubious manipulation of the voters register and the processes leading up to the December 07 presidential and parliamentary elections.
Printing of Ballot Papers & Other Materials
The Commission must understand that ballot statistics for printing of ballot papers are derived from a certified register and not a Provisional register.
We also expect the EC to obey the Public Procurement Act in selecting printers for the 2024 elections.
This being the case, we expect the Jean Mensah led Electoral Commission to shed itself off the tight skin and scales of the NPP in order to gain the gravitas and confidence to do right as the Constitution of Ghana expects from them.
Conclusion
We shall not tolerate anything less than a clean voters register!
This includes an interparty multi-stakeholder audit of the EC’s vulnerable IT system (also known as the “Leaking Roof”).
We shall not tire!
We shall not falter!!
We shall not relent!!!
We shall not rest!!!!