Our trust in EC eroded – NDC
Dr Omane Boamah, Director of Elections and IT, National Democratic Congress (NDC) says the actions of the Electoral Commission (EC) has eroded every last bit of trust the Party has in it.
“The Electoral Commission has eroded the last atom of trust that we had in them. Credibility-wise, reliability-wise, and even self-interestedness. It’s sad that the EC is demonstrating to Ghanaians that they have something to hide,” he said.
Dr Boamah said this on Saturday during a discussion on an Accra-based television programme.
The NDC is set to embark on a nationwide demonstration against the EC on Tuesday, September 17, 2024, to demand an independent forensic audit of the Information Technology systems of the EC to ensure that the voters’ register is robust and credible ahead of the December 7 General Election.
The protest is scheduled to commence at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle, through to Parliament House, and end at the Head Office of the EC, where the leadership of the NDC would present a petition to the Commission.
The NDC said a scrutiny of the voters register revealed that a total of 243,540 previous transfers had been added to the 2024 transfers.
It also discovered 15,000 plus unidentifiable voter transfer paths; 3,957 voters in 2023 register who were completely missing from the 2024 register.
The NDC also found 2,000 unidentified voters who had been registered.
“And the last but not least is the corrupt files. Where you open the file, you don’t find the photo, you don’t find the name, you don’t find the age,” Dr Boamah said.
He said behind the forensic audit, the EC, after effecting the necessary corrections, should organise a re-exhibition exercise of the voters register.
Dr Boamah urged all Ghanaians to come out in their numbers on Tuesday to support the NDC in its quest to demand transparency from the EC.
On his part, Dr Bossman Asare, Deputy Chairman, Corporate Services of the Electoral Commission (EC) refuted the NDC’s claims that the EC was hiding anything from Ghanaians.
He said the EC had addressed all concerns raised so far and urged the NDC to present evidence to support their allegations.
“I can say without a shadow of doubt that all the concerns the NDC has raised, the Commission strongly believes that we have addressed them.
“Because the exhibition exercise is meant to do corrections. And we’ve called the NDC repeatedly that the evidence you claim you have, give them to us. Once you bring them to us, we’ll process it, because we know we have done everything.”
Dr Bossman said the best way to address NDC’s concerns was for them to come to the discussion table with the EC.
“I’m not trying to say the Commission is perfect. Neither am I trying to say we are angelic in the way we do our work. Definitely, because you are dealing with human-based numbers, some people’s pictures may not be captured properly. Once you still have concerns, you come to us.”
“… And we’ve got to make sure that we have a register that is credible, that is robust, that is inclusive. They seem to be exaggerating problems in the register which are non-existent. They are misleading people with issues that are non-existent,” he said.
Source: GNA