There AreNo Compelling Reasons For A Forensic Audit Of Ghanas Electoral Register IPG

The Institute for Progressive Governance (IPG), has expressed its concern about the opposition NDC calling for a forensic audit into Ghana’s voters’ register, describing the calls as not only strange but also unnecessary and not compelling enough to warrant an audit as proposed by the NDC.

“IPG finds the demands of the National Democratic Congress strange since the party has not presented any significant evidence warranting the calls for a forensic audit into the electoral roll. What the NDC presented to the EC is not enough for the Commission to knuckle under the pressure the opposition party is giving to the Jean Mensa-led Electoral Commission” part of the statement reads.

According to IPG, the NDC is exhibiting double standards with respect to the calls for major overhauls of the country’s electoral system over the years. The former President and flagbearer of the NDC, John Dramani Mahama, has been vociferous in his demand on the EC to agree to a forensic audit by a foreign entity, held a completely different view over a similar call in the run-up to the 2016 elections.

“Mr. Mahama had this to say when the then opposition New Patriotic Party called for a new register for the purposes of the 2016 presidential and parliamentary elections:
‘Accusations and unprintable insults hauled at the person of EC Chair have become normal. This is unacceptable, but for students of politics we can see the tactic behind it. It is an old trick in the book; vilify the referee and decrease the credibility of the referee in the eyes of the public when you can tell you are losing the match. This creates the platform where, when you lose to discredit and contest the outcome of the match. This is the underlying cause for all the whining that is taking place against the Electoral Commission at every step of the electoral process’, IPG quoted.

The statement from the then President John Dramani Mahama in 2016, according to the think tank, is completely worlds apart from his posturing today. His position now is parallel to the principled position he held in the run-up to the 2016 elections. IPG finds the NDC’s flagbearer’s inconsistencies quite problematic and worrying.

“It is also worth noting what the then General Secretary of the NDC said at the forum with stakeholders on NPP’s calls for a new voter roll because the party believed the register was over-bloated. This is what Johnson Asiedu Nketiah said at the forum;

‘I have indicated that the process of deleting dead persons is the process of exhibition of the register. After every provisional register is compiled, it is exhibited. Before we go into any election, the register is exhibited, and the main purpose of the exhibition is for us to raise objections to people whose names are there which ought not to be there. There are forms and means of processing those objections that will lead to deletion of those names. It includes the deletion of names of dead people too, so chance is given for people to present evidence’” the statement further held.

“From the above quotation, the then General Secretary of the NDC was saying that exhibition of voters’ register is the best way to correct anomalies discovered in the voters’ register. Is it not ironic that the same person is rejecting his own prescription, which was adhered to at the time, but now postulating a completely different sets of methods to deal with whatever anomalies the register may contain?”

IPG, thus, has proposed the following measures to dealing with the issues raised by the opposition National Democratic Congress:
1. NDC must make available to the EC the full details of the anomalies they claim to have discovered.
2. The EC must be accommodative enough to give the NDC a hearing.
3. There should be a committee comprising all political parties, Peace Council, Clergy and some reps from the Diplomatic Corps.
4. A frank, honest discussion must be held over all the issues raised.

The think tank concludes by stating that there are already existing means of auditing the voters’ register without resorting to falling on any foreign organization to do so for the country.

“IPG believes that there is absolutely no need for any forensic audit of the nation’s voters’ roll. If there are anomalies, the laid down procedures as stipulated in the EC’s regulations as espoused by Johnson Asiedu Nketiah in 2016, ought to be employed to sanitize the register. Ghana is a sovereign state and cannot, therefore, hand over its voters’ register to foreigners in the name of forensic auditing” IPG emphasized.Josephine Acheampomaa