EC’s admission of errors shows that its IT system is not robust – Dr Dominic Ayine

A former Deputy Attorney-General Dr Dominic Ayine has said that the Electoral Commission’s admission of errors on the voter register and the subsequent correction it has done show that its IT system is not robust.

He asked the commission to recognize that although they are an independent body, they operate under the constitution therefore they must provide the provisional voter register to the political parties as required by Constitutional Instrument (C.I) 91.

C.I 91, he said, mandates the commission to present the provisional register to the registered political parties for the perusal and corrections if need be.

This is exactly what the National Democratic Congress (NDC) has been demanding, he said.

Speaking on the Key Points on TV3 on Saturday, September 28, the Bolgatanga East lawmaker said “The EC has not denied that the errors have not occurred, The admission that the errors have occurred, in and of themselves, shows that the IT system is not robust.

“The EC is independent under the constitution but as Ggadegbe JSC said in the Abu Ramadan and the Attorney-General case, the EC is independent but it is subject to the constitution and the laws of this country.

“If you look at the CI 91 that is the Public Election, Voter Registration Instrument 2016, there is a mandate provision to the effect that the provisional register should be given to each registered political party. It is for no reason that parliament enacted the law that says that you have to give a copy of the provisional register to the political parties. The provisional register is not a photo album meant to be given to them for them to just look at beautiful pictures of registered voters, it is meant to be given to them so that they can peruse the register and carefully detect, if possible any mistakes that have been made with respect to the register and that is what the NDC is doing.”

A Deputy Chairman at the Electoral Commission (EC), Dr Bossman Asare, said that all the problems identified by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) on the voter register have been resolved.

The NDC had said there were unidentifiable and missing voter data in the provisional register; and illegal voter transfers and was therefore demanding a re-exhibition of the Provisional Voters Register.

But speaking on the Hot Issues with TV3’s Kemini Amanor on Sunday, September 29, Dr Bossman Asare said that “As I speak to you I can say on authority that all the problems identified by the NDC have been resolved. [But] for you to be double sure that your concerns have been addressed, come to the discussion table and bring your issue. The reality is that it is premature for you to make a request for a forensic audit.”

The commission had rejected the call by the NDC to conduct a forensic audit of the voter register while responding to the petition submitted by the main opposition party.

In its response to the NDC’s petition, the EC said “The Commission takes this opportunity to assure the NDC and the General Public that it has largely resolved all the discrepancies identified in the PVR. The Commission achieved this in 2020 and will do it again in 2024.
“We invite your team to the discussion table as we believe it will afford us the opportunity to demonstrate to you that the discrepancies detected in the PVR have been resolved.

“As a Commission, we are of the view that the existing legal and administrative processes for cleaning the PVR have not been fully exhausted to justify the call for a Forensic Audit. We entreat the NDC and the General Public to trust us to deliver our mandate.”

The NDC organized ‘Enough is enough’ nationwide demonstration on Tuesday, September 17 to press home their demand for an audit of the register.

“Our demand is simple,” National Chair of NDC, Johnson Asiedu Nketia said.

He added “We want the EC to ensure a free, fair, and transparent election and a credible register is central to that goal.

“We want nothing but transparent elections that will guarantee our right to choose our leaders. Without the right of self-determination, democracy is good as gone and every democracy at one point in time, comes under threat Ghana’s democracy is under serious threat now and we want to prevail.

“We shall overcome because every democracy has the risk of producing a tyrant but our ability to fight that tyrant and restore democracy once again is paramount and we shall prevail.

“Elections alone do not guarantee democracy, it is democratic-minded citizens who are ready to fight for them who can guarantee democracy.”