Political parties question EC’s competence after admitting another voter registration error

After the Electoral Commission (EC) acknowledged yet another inaccuracy in its provisional voter registration update, some political parties are beginning to doubt the EC’s competence.

By Day 11 of the limited registration effort, 459,291 people were reportedly enrolled, according to EC estimates.

Eleven hours after the numbers were posted, the EC acknowledged mistakes, claiming that the Greater Accra Region on the slide on challenge cases that had previously been released had been mistakenly reproduced for the Upper East Region.

The political parties are unhappy and doubt the EC’s ability to handle the entire exercise.

Samuel Tettey, the Deputy EC Chairperson in charge of Operations, asserts that the Commission will not attempt to conceal its errors and will instead make an effort to improve their operations.

“On the issue of mistakes in infographs that the Commission acknowledged and corrected, it is important to reiterate that those mistakes did not affect the actual number of registered voters per district or region. All the political parties with agents at the various registration centres including the NDC have the same registered voter figures as the Commission.”

“As a Commission, we will not hide from our mistakes. What is more important is that we identify why the mistakes happened and why they were not detected before publication. We have since put in place a system that will make sure that this never happens again,” he said.

The NDC’s general secretary, Fifi Kwetey, claims that the EC is obviously trying to rig the results by distorting the numbers.

“This situation exemplifies what we term, transpositional rigging of election, where figures are shuffled between categories without affecting the overall total,”he argued.

Courage Boti, the Movement for Change’s communication officer, claims that the development is undermining public trust in the voting process.

“It is worrying that some of these errors continue to occur. Our greater worry is that it raises doubts about the capacity of the Commission, and about the integrity of the Commission.

“And that casts doubts on the election and I don’t think it is proper for our democracy,” Mr Boti said.

In order to make sure that its procedures are being followed, he also demanded that the EC and its employees be audited.

The anticipated finish date of the 21-day exercise is May 27, 2024.

In the meanwhile, the EC has hinted that, should it be deemed necessary to accommodate all eligible persons, the limited voter registration period may be extended.