The Electoral Commission (EC) has once again dismissed calls by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) for a forensic audit of the Provisional Voters Register (PVR).
According to the EC, the legal and administrative mechanisms established to clean the register have not been fully utilized, making a forensic audit unnecessary at this stage.
This response was conveyed in a letter addressed to NDC Chairman, Johnson Asiedu Nketiah, following a petition submitted by the party after its demonstration on Tuesday, September 17, 2024.
The letter, which was also copied to key stakeholders including the Majority and Minority Leaders of Parliament, civil society organizations, the diplomatic community, and religious bodies such as the National Peace Council, the Christian Council of Ghana, the Ghana Pentecostal and Charismatic Council, the Chief Imam, and the Ahmadiyya Mission, reiterated the EC’s position on the matter.
“The Commission is of the view that the legal and administrative processes laid down to clean the PVR have not been fully exhausted to justify the calls for a Forensic Audit. We entreat the public to trust us to carry out our mandate.”
At the end of the NDC’s Enough Is Enough demonstration, the party made the following demand in its petition:
“Permit an Independent Forensic Audit of the Voters Register and its IT System: An independent forensic audit of the Provisional Voters Register and its IT System must be conducted to uncover the full extent of the irregularities, including unauthorised log-ins, transfers, discrepancies, and data corruption.
“This audit should also provide a comprehensive review of the IT infrastructure, human processes, and overall system integrity that led to these errors and discrepancies in the voter register. The audit should also examine both the technical and procedural vulnerabilities of EC’s IT and registration system.”
However, explaining the basis of its position in the letter to the NDC, the EC said:
“The Constitutional Instrument (C.I.) 91 recognizes that the PVR is a draft Register and recognizing that the PVR is bound to contain discrepancies, the framers of the C.I. 91, instituted the mechanism of the Exhibition Exercise to allow for the cleaning and revision of the PVR to ensure that it is credible and robust for an election.
“The Register is thus displayed in all Polling Stations (Exhibition Centres) and Online to allow for inspection and corrections where necessary.
“In essence, the Exhibition Exercise provides the legal basis to clean the PVR. You will agree with us that as with any human endeavour, such as the Registration of Voters, there are bound to be discrepancies. One cannot therefore expect the Provisional Register to be foolproof.
“It is for this reason that Regulation 23 of C.I. 91 provides clear and well-defined pathways to cure and deal with likely anomalies that are bound to arise from the Registration of Voters, including missing names, errors in biographical data, duplicates, the existence of deceased persons on the Register, incorrect designation of Polling Stations, among others. Thankfully, there exist legal and administrative remedies to resolve all post-registration issues.”
