NDC’s call for independent forensic audit of voters register is ‘misguided’ and ‘premature’- EC

The Electoral Commission (EC) has said the call by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) for an independent forensic audit of the voters register was “misguided” and “premature”.

The Commission itself is an independent body and besides, the public exhibition of the provisional voters register (PVR) was part of the process to identify and correct errors, mistakes or discrepancies if any exists in the register, the EC has said.

It said the discrepancies the NDC has talked about and had a meeting with EC over it, were not “new” as the Commission itself had detected same issues and has taken steps to resolve them.

It said the law provides remedies for such discrepancies to be corrected under the Constitutional Instrument for registration of voters, C.I. 91, which has been updated by C.I. 126, and that the law envisaged that discrepancies may arise following a registration exercise and  therefore provided remedies for fixing them.

Such remedies the commission said includes, including omitted names, objection to names of unqualified voters, removal of names of deceased persons from the register, replacement of poor quality or damaged voter ID cards, correction to wrong spelling of names, correction to wrong registration centre codes and misplaced polling stations and amendment to other registration details, example age, sex etc as a result of clerical error.

The commission said this at a media engagement on Thursday evening [September 12, 2024] dubbed, “Let the Citizens know” where the commission addressed the nation on matters arising from the exhibition of the provisional voters register.

Speaking on behalf of the Commission, Mr Samuel Tettey, Deputy Commissioner in charge of Operations said the planned street protest by the NDC was not the way to resolve the issue.

According to him, the EC has asked the NDC multiple times to provide data on the discrepancies it said it had found so the EC can compare it to what it has also found as part of the public exhibition process and was already working on resolving it, but the NDC has not done so.

Below is a copy of the full address by the EC on the issue

12^th September, 2024

MATTERS ARISING FROM THE EXHIBITION OF THE PROVISIONAL VOTERS REGISTER

This evening the Commission will address matters arising from the just ended Voter Exhibition Exercise which took place from 20^th to 27^th August, 2024.

1.     The Commission held a meeting with the National Democratic Congress (NDC) on Friday, the 6th of September, 2024. The meeting provided an opportunity for the NDC to present their concerns with the Provisional Voters Register. As you may be aware the Provisional Voters Register was recently exhibited as part of processes leading to the preparation of the Final Voters Register ahead of the 2024 General Election.

2.    In their presentation, the NDC indicated they had identified five issues with the Register. The NDC further stressed that the concerns they have identified would warrant the Electoral Commission to accept a Forensic Audit of the Voters Register to assuage the fears of Stakeholders. In addition, the NDC requested for re-exhibition of the Voters Register.

3.     The Commission informed the NDC that the discrepancies they had detected were not new. The Commission noted that it had detected the same issues and had taken steps to correct them. The Commission reiterated that the essence of the Exhibition Exercise was to address all the concerns with the Provisional Voters Register and assured the NDC that the issues identified were being resolved. The Commission assured the NDC that the issues they had listed were typical issues that the law had provided remedies for, as stated in the Constitutional Instrument on the Registration of Voters (C.I. 91 as amended by C.I. 126).

4.    The Commission explained that the law envisaged that discrepancies would arise following a registration exercise and provided remedies for fixing the discrepancies including the following:

Inclusion of omitted names

Objection to names of unqualified voters on the register

Removal of names of deceased voters from the register

 Replacement of poor quality or damaged Voter ID Cards

 Correction to wrong spelling of names

Correction to wrong registration centre codes