The National Democratic Congress (NDC) has demanded a forensic audit into the voters register for the 2024 elections, after the recent exhibition exercise showed that the register is heavily compromised.
The latest call was made by the party’s National Chairman, Johnson Asiedu Nketiah, aka(General Mosquito), moments after he led a team to file nomination on behalf of the NDC Flagbearer, John Dramani Mahama to officially enter the candidate on the 2024 Presidential ticket.
The demand for forensic audit accompanied a threat to carry a nationwide demonstration to press home the demand for a free and fair process in the up-coming general elections.
At a meeting with the Electoral Commission on the 6th of September, 2024, the NDC’s Director of Elections, Dr. Edward Omane Boamah, coupled the demand for a forensic audit with a demand for re-exhibition of the register, saying the demand is not negotiable.
“If a forensic audit could be avoided, we would never have opted for that path – unfortunately, under the present circumstances, a forensic audit is unavoidable and non-negotiable!
“We firmly believe a forensic audit will answer several critical questions that need to be addressed in light of the recent allegations and admissions by the Electoral Commission (EC) regarding the voter register,” he said.
The demand for the forensic audit and the re-exhibition was reached after the NDC had done a careful comparison of the 2023 voters’ register to the one to be used for the 2024 elections.
Some of the anomalies found in them are shocking, with some, including the transfer of votes, without recourse to the voters involved, bothering on pure criminality.
Among others, 3,957 voters in the 2023 register were deleted from the 2024 register due to voter transfer.
2,094 voters were transferred to different Polling Stations even though they do not exist in the EC’s own Absent Voter List (AVL).
The comparison also showed that 322,863 previously transferred voters in 2023 were added to the 2024 voter transfer register. 243,540 voters who are supposed to have been transferred still remain on the register at their previous Polling Stations re sulting in a repetition of data.
Also, about 15,000 unidentifiable voter transfer paths were sniffed out while some 1,685 files were found to be corrupted.
Against this backdrop, Dr. Omane Boamah described the current voters register as “unfit for purpose.”
“We believe a forensic audit will answer the following questions: The Extent of Manipulation: How widespread is the issue of illegal voter transfers? Ifthe Pusiga EC Office could transfer voters from Tamale South Constituency without proper authorization, what is the scale of similar incidents across the country? How many voters might have been affected, and how can this be accurately quantified?
“System Vulnerabilities: What specific vulnerabilities in the Electoral Commission’s systems
– Human and Technical
– allowed for these un- authorized transfers? Are there specific protocols
or security measures that were bypassed or ignored? Specifically, will the EC’s attempts to address these weaknesses prevent further manipulations ahead of the December 07, elections? If yes, what prevented the EC from not instituting such measures?
“Timeliness of Provisional Register: Why was there such an avoidable delay in providing the Pro- visional Voters Register to the NDC?
“Impact of the Mistakes on the Elections: What is the potential impact of the admitted mistakes and errors by the Electoral Commission on the fairness of the upcoming elections? Will the mistakes compromise the integrity of the election results?
“Historical Comparisons: The EC generalized its mistake by referencing errors made by past Commissions. How does this comparison help address the current concerns, and what lessons have been learned from previous errors to prevent similar issues in the future?
“Timeline for Corrections: What is the timeline for addressing these issues
in order to derive a reliable, credible, accurate and fit-for-purpose voter register before printing of the registers, and other materi- als to commence as origi- nally planned and agreed at IPAC?”
He dismissed the EC’s excuse that the anomalies are small hitches pointing out that the scale of the errors is unprecedented.
To ensure that the sources of the problems are rooted out, the NDC demanded that the forensic audit be conducted on the 2020 register as well since some of the errors may have been migrated from that older register.
“For the many legitimate voters out there who may feel disenfranchised, we also request for a 5-day RE-EXHIBITION of the register after the forensic audit to enable them verify the accuracy and integrity of the voter register before the General election.”
The NDC also urged the Electoral Commission to immediately convene an emergency meeting with all political parties, Civil Society Organisations, Diplomatic Community, (ECOWAS, AU, UNDP, EU, USAID, DANIDA, The British High Commission among others) to discuss these issues and proceed to conduct the forensic audit of the registers.
Meanwhile, the NDC also expressed dissatisfaction with the EC’s delay in releasing the provisional voters’ register to the party. strangely, the document was released hours to the exhibition exercise. Th e part said thiis delay initially denied us sufficient time to thoroughly examine the register and identify anomalies and irregularities well ahead of the exhibition exercise.
The party also expressed concern about the EC’s recruitment of Collation Officers when Returning Officers exist, and sought an update from the EC about stolen EC Biometric equipment (BVD and BVR laptops).