Ghana’s electoral system has enough mechanisms to prevent fraud – EC
Mr. Alexander Poku-Akubia, Greater Accra Regional Director of the Electoral Commission, has assured the public that the country’s electoral system has more than enough integrity to prevent and deal with fraud.
“The entire system has been made to enhance and ensure that the process is credible. The laid down mechanisms make it very unnecessary and impossible for any inaccuracies or misunderstanding to occur,” he said.
Mr. Poku-Akubia said this on Monday at a day’s workshop organized for a cross section of the media in Accra on enhancing the credibility and confidence of the electoral process.
He said every aspect of the election as well as potential points of trouble had been well catered for, adding that the country was adequately prepared for Friday’s presidential and parliamentary elections.
Mr. Poku-Akubia said it was heart-warming to note that upon all the measures that had been put in place, which were in themselves very satisfactory, the Biometric Verification system also ensured beyond all doubt that no fraud or malfeasance would be recorded during the voting process.
He said often false stories concerning cases of election malfeasance during election periods gained credibility, because people were so poorly informed about the process that they easily believed what they otherwise could easily had known was simply impossible.
Mr. Poku-Akubia urged media practitioners to educate themselves adequately on the processes of the electoral system in order to be able to educate the public.
“By the time results are accepted by the Electoral Commission for example as credible, they have already been satisfactorily cross-checked with several other people and authorities including agents of the various political parties.”
He said, “If you should you take your time to study the structure of our voting process in detail, you would realize that it is impossible for anybody or group of people to negatively affect any election here. Our system is just too transparent for that.”
Mr. Poku-Akubia stressed that journalists should strive hard to play their watch-dog role by reporting only facts and bearing in mind that they had a duty to ensure the voting process become successful.
He said there was absolutely no need for anyone to take the law into their own hands because the law courts were there.
The workshop was collaboration between the Electoral Commission of Ghana, the United States Agency for International Development and KAB Governance Consultancy.
Ghanaians go to the polls on Friday, December 7, 2012.
Source: GNA