The Electoral Commission (EC) says it did not take the decision to transmit results of the November elections electronically alone.
According to a press release from the EC issued August 1, 2016 and copied to ghanabusinessnews.com, the decision to put in place an electronic results transmission system (ERTS) for the 2016 elections was not taken unilaterally by the Commission.
“It was part of the several reform proposals made by the Electoral Reform Committee which was set up by the Commission after the 2013 Supreme Court judgment on the Presidential Election Petition,” it said.
The EC listed the names of the committee members and they include the following: Ms. Georgina Opoku Amankwaa- Deputy Chairperson (EC), Mrs. Rebecca Kabukie Adjalo (Member, EC), Mr. Johnson Asiedu Nketiah (NDC), Mr. Kwabena Agyei Agyepong (NPP), Mr. James Kwabena Bomfeh Jnr. (CPP), Mr. Anin-Kofi Addo (YPP), Dr. Ransford Gyampo (IEA), Mr. Kwesi Jonah (IDEG) and Dr. Franklin Oduro (CDD-Ghana).
Some members of some political parties are on record to have questioned the decision, and created the impression as though they didn’t know about the decision.
The EC giving a justification for the decision, said: “The transparency of the collation of the votes is critical to the acceptability of the declaration of the results. Therefore these steps should be taken to further open up the collation process to as many members of the public as possible. Where people are assured of openness, they tend to trust the electoral process and ignore rumors of manipulation of results. This engenders trust in the process.”
The EC said it only accepted to implement a proposal and decision which was taken by the Committee and collectively accepted by all the political parties at the Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC) level, adding that the Commission holds the view that the basis for the recommendation of the ERTS by the Reform Committee was valid and deepens the integrity and transparency of the election results collation process.
Among other things, reiterating its position, the EC said it has always dealt with political party leaders and other stakeholders with utmost good faith and on the basis of trust. It is therefore natural for it to expect that the political parties will relate to it on the same terms.
“The Commission would like to assure the public that no decision has yet been made on the vendor for the ERTS. In furtherance of our commitment to transparency, the Commission intended to make vendor selection process as inclusive as possible. The planned demonstration exercise is a key stage in the selection process.
Consequently, after completion of the evaluation, a number of vendors were listed to present their proposed solutions to the various stakeholders, including the political parties. Indeed we already had invitations prepared to be sent out from the week beginning August 1, to all relevant stakeholders to participate in the demonstration exercise. The Commission will only make a decision on the vendor after this exercise has been completed,” it said.
By Emmanuel K. Dogbevi