The Deputy Chairperson of the Electoral Commission (EC), Dr Bossman Asare, has affirmed that the Commission is well-prepared to address potential cyber threats to its systems and processes in the upcoming December 7 general elections.
According to him, while a significant portion of the Commission’s processes remains manual, there is still an extensive use of technology.
Speaking during the JoyNews National Dialogue on Cybersecurity at Election 2024 Crossroads on Wednesday, October 16, Dr Asare stated that the Commission is doing everything necessary to safeguard its systems.
He explained that after securing their technological infrastructure, the next step is to ensure that proper procedures are followed at all centres managing the manual processes.
“From the EC’s standpoint, I can confidently say that we are fully ready, we have taken into consideration the threat in terms of technology, in terms of the manual process and we are working assiduously to navigate through all of them,” he said.
He expressed optimism about the success of the December 7 general elections, adding that the Commission aims to outperform previous elections.
Dr Asare further noted that while technology plays a vital role in certain aspects, such as voter registration and, to some extent, the exhibition process, the bulk of election-day operations are manual.
“On election day, beyond registration and exhibition, about 95 per cent of our processes are manual. I don’t see how the remaining 5 per cent could be significant enough to overturn the majority of our work,” he said.
He added, “Printing of ballots – although there is some technology in it, it is not the type that you will say somebody is going to hack into it to make it impossible for you to print. And on the elections’ day, …our voting is largely a manual process. The counting is purely manual, the collation at the constituency level, the regional level and at the national level are all manual.”
Dr Asare stressed that while the Commission is actively addressing potential cybersecurity threats, they remain focused on the manual nature of most processes.
“Because we have a database where we keep the data, critically, technology is very important, and we’re recognizing that it’s an area that can be affected, we have put the necessary measures in place. We are convinced that coming December 7, we are going to have a credible, transparent process,” he added.