Full text: EU Commission update on the issuing of electoral rolls

Following the presentation of the provisional electoral roll, numerous comments were made from sections of society.

While some of these allegations are based on legitimate concerns, others are baseless and designed to tarnish the image of the Electoral Commission. As a Commission, we consider it our duty to provide the public with the truth.

On Monday, 26.^th In August, the Commission received a report from our Northern Regional Directorate that some voters from two polling stations in Tamale South Constituency and one polling station in Sagnerigu Constituency had been relocated to Pusiga Constituency in the Upper East Region without their knowledge or consent.

The Commission wishes to inform the public that it has completed preliminary investigations into the alleged unauthorised voter transfers. The Commission would like to address the public on this matter as follows:

Paragraph 22, sub-paragraph 1 of Constitutional Instrument (CI) 127 states: ‘A registered voter who has been resident for at least twelve months before an election in a constituency other than that in which he is registered may apply to the Returning Officer of the constituency in which the registered voter is resident for the registered voter’s name to be entered on the roll of transferred voters at a polling station in that constituency.’

According to the law, the registered voter must be present in person to request the transfer of his vote to another polling station. The transfer of the vote can only be done at the district offices and requires the presence of the voter, who must be verified either by his face or fingerprints.

The voters involved in the incidents in Tamale South and Sagnerigu constituencies have denied participating in any rendition, only hinting that their voter IDs were confiscated by a certain Haruna Muniru, allegedly for the purpose of processing a loan. The said Haruna Muniru was in police custody last week. He is currently out on bail and police investigations are ongoing.

Preliminary investigations by the Commission have revealed that voter transfers were indeed carried out for thirty-eight (38) persons using the credentials of an Electoral Commission official. The records of these transfers are captured in the audit logs of the Voter Management System (VMS). A look at the verification conducted during the transfer process shows that photographs of the voters from their voter ID cards were used for facial verification and to conduct the transfers.

Following this incident, the Commission introduced a “liveness check” into the verification process. This feature is designed to ensure that the biometric data captured comes from a living, present human and not from a fake source, such as a photograph, as was the case in this case. The “liveness check” has since been integrated into the system to prevent similar incidents in the future.

The Commission is currently investigating. Although the Commission has no evidence to suggest that this incident is widespread, we have launched investigations to ascertain whether similar incidents have occurred elsewhere besides the reported case in Tamale South and Sagnerigu constituencies. Any such transfers will be reversed and perpetrators will be punished in accordance with the law.

Following preliminary investigations, the Commission has suspended the Pusiga District Electoral Officer and asked him to respond to the Commission's findings. Once the investigations are completed, the Commission will take appropriate action and inform the public accordingly.

The Commission wishes to assure the public that it will not protect any of its officials (both permanent and temporary) found to be complicit in electoral fraud and that it will always punish such persons to the full extent of the law.

We would like to reiterate that the provisional electoral roll is not the final electoral roll. The main objective of the demonstration exercise is to correct any anomalies and problems with the provisional roll before the final roll is prepared. This has been standard practice since 1992.

The Commission wishes to reassure the public that the final electoral roll produced following the issuance exercise will be robust and credible.

The provisional voters' roll, prepared for the just concluded election campaign and also made available to all political parties, contains a list of transferred voters and a list of absentee voters for each polling station. The list of absentee voters should contain a list of all voters who transferred from a particular polling station within the period when the Election Commission opened the roll for transfers and special elections.

The list of absentee voters should only include voters who transferred their vote and those who voted in a special election. The list of transferred voters, on the other hand, includes all voters who were transferred to the polling place within that period.

In preparation for the 2024 exhibition exercise, the absentee voters' lists and the displaced voters' lists inadvertently included all displacements made since 2020, when this register was first created. This has resulted in higher than expected numbers of absentee and displaced voters.

This has understandably raised some concerns among our stakeholders as evidenced by the NDC press conference in Ajumako-Enyan-Esiam constituency in the Central Region. The Commission has corrected this anomaly and will provide all political parties with the corrected list of absentee and displaced voters for each polling station, which will include only those applicants who successfully applied for a displaced or special election for the 2024 general election.

It is also absolutely untrue that the Commission has added names to the electoral roll to rig the elections in favour of a particular party. These allegations are baseless and should be ignored by the public. The Commission has no intention of inflating the roll to give one political party an advantage over the other.

As explained above, the cumulative transfer data for 2020, 2023 and 2024 were inadvertently aggregated in the registers provided to political parties. This has been corrected and the revised register will be provided after all corrections have been made. The revised transfer list will be made available to parties.

It is common knowledge that Ghana has one of the most transparent and comprehensive electoral processes in Africa. From registration to the declaration of results, all our processes are transparent, comprehensive and open to the political parties and the citizens. Nothing is hidden. There are no secrets. Any interested party or citizen can obtain relevant information on all aspects of the electoral process without any effort. Therefore, the claim that the peace and outcome of the election depends on the Chairman of the Electoral Commission is false. We urge the public to ignore statements by even prominent citizens suggesting that the conduct of peaceful elections in 2024 is somehow the responsibility of the Chairman of the Electoral Commission.

The Commission has nothing to hide. The provisional electoral roll is a public document available online for voters to verify their details. It is not a secret document. At the end of the day, the final roll will be made available to all political parties in accordance with the law and usual practice.

Compiling the register is a human task. Errors are inevitable. This is not the first time that the Commission has found errors in voter registration and the compilation of the voters' register. This has been the case since 1992. The problems range from missing names, reversed photos and genders, incorrect additions or omitted names, etc. This is nothing new.

The purpose of the inspection of the provisional electoral roll, as provided for by law, is to correct errors. The law provides for the inclusion of missing names, the removal of names that, according to due process, should not be on the roll, the removal of names that, according to due process, should not be on the exclusion list, the correction of gender, the correct placement of voters in their polling stations, etc. This is exactly what the Commission does, as required by law.

Since 2020, this commission has made a major effort to clean the register using four pronged approaches: district election officials, fair officials, voters verifying their details at fair centres and IT staff. This was not the case before 2020 and thus a credible register has been ensured that includes those who are qualified to be included in the register while no qualified voter is left out.

The public may recall that the same negative propaganda was spread about the register in 2020 during the exhibition. The Commission took advantage of the problems that emerged during the 2020 exhibition to clean up the register and ensure its credibility. As a result, not a single complaint was received about the register during and after the 2020 elections. Ultimately, the 2020 elections were rated very highly by citizens and local and international election observers.

We urge the public to reject claims that the register is unsuitable for the 2024 elections or is irremediably flawed. The register is robust and credible. Ultimately, the final certified register will include corrections to any errors identified.

Who issues a document and makes it available to everyone if the intention is to add illegal people? It is important to note that political parties have copies of the 2020 and 2023 register, as well as records of the daily registration reports of the 2024 limited voter registration and the mop-up registration exercises. This is a transparent and inclusive process and is not exclusive to the European Commission, so those who claim the Commission is trying to manipulate data should be ignored unless they can provide evidence.

The Commission assures the public and its stakeholders that the anomalies identified during the demonstration exercise and their correction will in no way affect the validity of the electoral roll and the ability of valid voters to cast their vote on election day.

As a Commission, we continue to demonstrate and reflect the values ​​of transparency, integrity and fairness in all our activities. We are fully aware that the electoral roll is the bedrock and foundation of an election.

We are aware that a credible electoral register indispensable prerequisite for transparent, peaceful and fair elections. The Commission is committed to conducting and ensuring free, fair, transparent, peaceful, credible and inclusive elections in December 2024. We ask the public to support the Commission for successful parliamentary elections in 2024.

Thank you for your attention.

Election Commission: Transparency and accountability in motion

Thank you very much.

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