The Electoral Commission (EC) has questioned the call for a forensic audit of the Voters Register as proposed by the National Democratic Congress (NDC), pointing out that an “exhibition offers an avenue for the auditing of the Register”.

According to the EC, the Exhibition “unearths discrepancies and allows for prescribed legal processes to correct the discrepancies.”

The NDC, about a fortnight ago, demanded a forensic audit of the voter’s register, stating it is fraught with irregularities.

Director of Elections and IT for the NDC, Dr. Edward Omane-Boamah, was emphatic that without a forensic audit or parliamentary investigation of the register, it “remains incurably defective”.

He cited irregularities in the register during the voters’ exhibition exercise which ended on August 27, 2024, to back his assertions, and maintained it is “not fit for purpose“.

It is the position of the largest opposition party that the voters register in its current state has “deliberately been tampered with“; hence, their call for an independent forensic audit.

“Fellow Ghanaians, Without a forensic audit or parliamentary investigation of the voters register, the register remains incurably defective …. Without a forensic audit or thorough parliamentary investigation of the EC’s voters register, the register will remain incurably defective. Forget about adjudication!!! It’s obvious the register has deliberately been tampered with! ….. The exhibition exercise has revealed avoidable problems, which, if not resolved, can jeopardize the outcome of the 2024 elections,” he posted on Facebook.

But the Commission wondered which body will be required to “fix the discrepancies in the register” in the aftermath of the forensic audit.

Assuring the General Public and all Stakeholders, including the National Democratic Congress (NDC), of its commitment to providing a robust and credible Voters Register that will guarantee free, fair, transparent and credible General Election in December 2024, the EC revealed that all identified errors with the Provisional Voters Register are being corrected.

Additionally, it said, they will soon address the Public on steps being taken before the Final Certified Register is released for the 2024 Elections.

The EC gave this assurance during a press conference in Accra on Thursday, 12th September, 2024.

Addressing the media, Deputy Chairman, Operations, Mr. Samuel Tettey highlighted the auditing function of the Exhibition of the register:

“The Commission wishes to inform the General Public that, the Voters Exhibition Exercise in itself is an audit. The Exhibition offers an avenue for the auditing of the Register. It unearths discrepancies and allows for prescribed legal processes to correct the discrepancies. Perhaps this is the first time the NDC has taken interest in the Register; otherwise one would have expected them to call for such an audit of the 2016 Register which contained photos of plants and animals representing Voters. It is important to note that, contrary to what is being alluded, since 1992 the Voters Register has never been audited.

“The Exhibition Exercise enables citizens to verify their details and allows for the unearthing of discrepancies in the register. Additionally, it provides for the correction of discrepancies in the Register. This is not new. This has been the practice since 1992. The process of cleaning and strengthening the Voters Register is well defined by law.

“We have also noted comments by the NDC to the effect that “the very doctor that created the problem should not be the doctor that will resolve the problem. The EC must agree for an independent body to audit them.” The EC holds a contrary view to the position held by the NDC. We reiterate that it is the EC that is clothed with the responsibility and capacity to address discrepancies in the Provisional Voters Register. The Commission has been doing this since 1992. It has the experience to do this and does not require any external organization to do its work.

“We reiterate that the Law makes provision for the self-auditing of the Voters Register through the Voters Exhibition Exercise. The Exercise makes available the provisional copy of the Register and allows citizens to verify their details and point out discrepancies with their details.  Additionally, the same Law allows for the correction of these discrepancies by the EC at all levels from the field to the districts to the Head Office.

“This is the laid down, tried and tested process and it works. What then is the purpose of the proposed forensic audit? The Commission is of the view that such an audit will add no value whatsoever to the well-defined tried and tested processes documented for the cleaning and strengthening of the provisional voters register.

“The question is, should the forensic audit be conducted, who will fix the discrepancies in the register? The answer is it is the same Commission that will fix the discrepancies and that is what we are doing. It is for this reason that the EC is of the view that the call for a forensic audit is misguided. The Commission believes that, as has been the case in the past, the Exhibition Exercise will contribute to the strengthening of the Voters Register.”

The Commission further explained that the law envisaged that discrepancies would arise following a registration exercise and provided remedies for fixing the discrepancies including the following:

•​Inclusion of omitted names

•​Objection to names of unqualified voters on the register

•​Removal of names of deceased voters from the register

•​Replacement of poor quality or damaged Voter ID Cards

•​Correction to wrong spelling of names

•​Correction to wrong registration center codes

•    Amendment to other registration details (e.g. age, sex etc.) as a result of clerical error.

Mr. Tetteh concluded by saying, “The Commission wishes to state that, almost all the discrepancies identified have to date been corrected. As in 2020, the Commission is committed to providing the country and all Political Parties with a robust and credible Voters Register that will guarantee free, fair, transparent and credible General Election in December 2024. We urge the public to trust the EC to do this again and again.”Source: Peacefmonline.com