The Deputy Chairman of the Electoral Commission (EC) in charge of Corporate Services, Dr. Bossman Asare, has announced that errors in the voter register are being corrected and will be updated shortly.
This follows allegation by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the Ajumako-Enyan-Esiam constituency of the Central Region that the EC was collaborating with the New Patriotic Party (NPP) to unlawfully inflate the voters’ register in the area.
However, Mr Asare said the commission has taken note of the concerns and therefore revised the voters register. He assured the public that the revised voters register will be free of errors.
Speaking at a press briefing on September 2, Dr Asare stated, “The Commission wishes to reassure the public that following the exhibition exercise, the final voters’ register will be robust and credible.”
He explained that the provisional voters’ register, which was used for the recently concluded exhibition exercise has shared with all political parties, including a transfer voters list and a list of absent voters for each polling station.
“The absent voters list should contain only those who have transferred their votes or are participating in special voting. The transfer voters list, conversely, includes all voters who have been transferred to the polling station during that period,” he said.
He further noted that, during preparations for the 2024 exhibition exercise, the absent voters list and transfer voters list included all transfers conducted since 2020, when the register was first compiled. This oversight, he added resulted in a higher-than-expected number of absent and transferred voters.
“This understandably caused some concern among our stakeholders, as evidenced by the press conference held by the NDC in the Ajumako Enyan constituency of the Central Region,” Dr Asare acknowledged.
He emphasised that the Commission has corrected this anomaly and will provide all political parties with the correct list of transfer voters for each polling station, containing only those applicants who successfully applied for transfer or special voting for the 2024 general election.
Dr Asare also dismissed allegations that the Commission had added names to the voters’ register in an attempt to rig the elections in favour of a particular party.
“These allegations are baseless and should be disregarded by the public,” he asserted.
He reiterated that the EC has no intention of bloating the register to give any political party an advantage.
“As explained earlier, the cumulative transfer data from 2020, 2023, and 2024 were inadvertently summed up in the registers provided to the political parties. This error has been corrected, and the revised register will be shared after all corrections have been made,” he said.
Dr Asare concluded by affirming that Ghana’s electoral process is among the most transparent and inclusive in Africa.
“From registration to the declaration of results, our processes are open to political parties and the citizenry. Nothing is hidden; there are no secrets in our elections. Any interested party or citizen can easily obtain relevant information on all aspects of the electoral process,” he said.
Source: myjoyonline