The Electoral Commission of Ghana has responded to the petition submitted by the National Democratic Congress [NDC] following the party’s recent protest demanding a forensic audit of the voter register.
The party petitioned the Commission to correct alleged anomalies regarding irregularities, discrepancies and unauthorised manipulations discovered in the 2024 Provisional Voters Register.
Responding to the petition, the Electoral Commission Chairperson, Madam Jean Mensa admonished the NDC and the General Public to trust the Commission to deliver its mandate.
In addressing the concerns of the NDC party, she noted that the provisional register is not the final register
“It is important to emphasize that the Register in question is a Provisional Register generated immediately after the registration of voters. It is a draft register. It is not the Final Register.
“Regulations 23 and 24 of the Public Elections (Registration of Voters) Regulations, 2016 Constitutional Instrument (C.I.) 91 as amended by C.1.126, enjoin the Commission to display the PVR at all Polling Stations (Exhibition Centres) nationwide to allow for an inspection and revision and correction where necessary.” She stated
Madam Jean Mensa added, “This and other legal and administrative processes are carried out before a Final Register is produced. C.I. 91 recognizes that the PVR is a draft Register. Indeed cognisant of the fact that a PVR is bound to contain discrepancies, C.I. 91, instituted the mechanism of the Exhibition Exercise to allow for the cleaning and revision of the PVR to ensure that it is credible and robust for an election. The Register is thus displayed in all Polling Stations (Exhibition Centres) and via electronic media to allow for inspection and correction where necessary. In essence, the Exhibition Exercise provides the legal basis to clean the PVR.”
She assured the party that the Commission has largely rectified all discrepancies identified during and after the Exhibition.
Regarding the NDC’s claims of irregularities in voter transfers, alleging that 243,540 voters were illegally transferred in the Provisional Voters Register, Madam Mensa clarified that the 2024 Absent Voters List and the Transferred Voters List provided to the Political Parties inadvertently included all transfers conducted since 2020, leading to the unexpectedly high figures.
“This is not an illegality, as claimed in your petition. What occurred was that records of all transfers from 2020, 2023, and 2024 were presented in the Register provided to the Political Parties.
“This resulted in the inflated transfer figures. This has since been corrected. We acknowledge that our officer in Pusiga conducted 38 unauthorized transfers, which have now been reversed, and the officer’s appointment has been terminated,” the EC Chairperson explained.
The Electoral Commission Chairperson assured the NDC and the general public that the Commission has largely addressed all discrepancies identified in the PVR.
