Tabulation errors must end – CODEO Boss tells Electoral Commission

The National Coordinator of the Coalition for Domestic Election Observers (CODEO), Albert Arhin has told the Electoral Commission (EC) to ensure that errors that occur in its tabulations come to an end.

He described the errors in the figures churned out by the commission as embarrassing.

“It is quite embarrassing, tabulation errors must end,” he said on the Hot Issues on TV3 on Sunday, June 2.

His comments come at a time when the Electoral Commission corrected the errors associated with the daily registration figures it provided in the just-ended limited voter registration exercise.

Earlier, the Commission reported that 143,014 eligible voters had been registered by the end of day four of the exercise.

However, having identified some infractions in the figures it released at the end of Day 3, specifically in the Upper East region, the Commission, in a subsequent statement less than 24 hours after releasing these figures, acknowledged the errors in the data.

The Electoral Commission’s statement highlighted that there was a repetition of figures for day three in the Upper East region, causing inaccuracies in the total registration figures.

According to the EC, this admission underscores “its commitment to transparency and accuracy” in the voter registration process, ensuring that the public receives reliable information about the ongoing exercise.

“The Electoral Commission has noted some mistakes in the daily voter registration figures earlier published. The mistakes appeared in the total registered figures stated for days two and three although the individual regional figures were accurate, while the day three figure for Upper East was repeated for day four. All these have been corrected,” it said.

According to the EC’s breakdown of registration figures by region, the Greater Accra region has recorded 17,837 registered voters, followed by the North East with 3,948, the Upper East with 6,691, and the Northern region with 10,373. Other regions include Bono (4,900), Bono East (5,118), Volta (7,512), Upper West (5,256), Eastern (14,884), Central (15,434), Ahafo (3,889), and Ashanti (25,558).

Also, registrations from other regions include 5,638 from Western North, 4,206 from Oti, 2,989 from Savannah, and 8,781 from the Western region.

The exercise, which commenced on Tuesday, May 7, ended on Wednesday, May 29.

Despite several challenges that have fraught the exercise, the Commission reaffirmed its commitment to ensuring that the country goes into the December 7 polls with a credible voter register.