The Ghanaian Journal

The figures which formed the basis of the allegation of a bloated register by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) do not exist, either on the Electoral Commission’s (EC’s) compact version of the voters register or the CD-ROMs given to the NDC, the Chairman of the EC, Dr Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, has said.

He said rather they existed on the hard copies of the voter statistics that the NDC received and were traceable to an operational error in the generation of the statistics.

At a press conference in Accra yesterday, Dr Afari-Gyan said that meant that the EC’s voter registration database, from which the register for elections was produced, was intact and did not contain the strange figures which formed the basis of the NDC’s allegation.

“With this finding, the issue of a bloated register should be laid to rest and we hope that people will, henceforth, desist from playing politics with it,” he added.

The press conference was to present the findings of a committee set up by the EC to investigate the discrepancies in voter registration figures in the Ashanti Region following allegations in that regard by the NDC.

According to the figures released by the NDC from figures it obtained from the E.C the number of registered voters in 13 constituencies of the Ashnti Region had increased by more than 100 per cent or had more than doubled between 2004 and 2006.

The committee, inaugurated on April 25, 2008, was chaired by the Deputy Chairman of the EC in charge of Finance and Administration, Mr David Adenze Kanga.

The other members were Mr Ebenezer Aggrey-Fynn, also of the EC; Mr K. Abaka-Quansah of the NDC; Dr David Pessey of the National Reform Party (NRP); Mr R.S. Ayite of the West African Examinations Council (WAEC); Mr Kwabena Agyei Agyepong of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), and Mr John Thompson of the Great Consolidated Popular Party (GCPP).

It submitted its report on May 30, this year. Dr Afari-Gyan said more than a year ago the NDC, on two separate occasions, asked for copies of the voters register.

He said on one occasion the party was given printed copies of voter statistics. On another occasion, it was given 10 CD-ROMs containing the voters register of the 10 regions of Ghana.

The discrepancies, he said, were the result of errors which occurred in programmes used to generate the voter statistics.

He said the operational error was a human one which was generated from the EC and conceded that anything that generated error on voter statistics was a serious matter.

“What is important is that since these errors are not on the database, and the EC prints the voters register from the database, there is no problem.

Before we print the voters register from the database, we also cross-check over and over again,” he said.

Dr Afari-Gyan said such operational errors were not common at the EC and added that if they became persistent they could create “credibility problems”.

He said the EC, as recommended by the committee, would seek the services of Information Technology (IT) experts to avoid such operational errors in future.

He said after every voters registration exercise, the EC gave the entire register to every political party and would continue to do so, adding that the reason was not only for the parties to know the number of voters on the register but also, as primary users, to enable them provide information that would assist the commission to keep the register clean and current.

“In this regard, we are most grateful to all groups and individuals who have called the commission’s attention to possible deficiencies in the voters register and we urge them to continue to do so.

All we ask for is that such matters be brought to our attention in good faith, with the view to preserving the integrity of the register,” he said.

Dr Afari-Gyan said the voters register belonged to the people of Ghana and that the EC was only its custodian.

The people of Ghana, he added, shared a collective responsibility to ensure that it was in good shape.

“What we found most regrettable about some of the political statements and media discussions and commentaries relating to the allegation of a bloated register were, on the one hand, hurried, uninformed and premature statements and judgements and, on the other, blatant accusations of deliberate wrongdoing made against the EC collectively and against some of its individual members,” he added.

Story by Mark-Anthony Vinorkor