Call for Forensic Audit: Laid-down processes not exhausted – EC tells NDC

The Electoral Commission (EC) has told the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the general public that legal and administrative processes laid down to clean the Provisional Voters Register (PVR) have not been fully exhausted to justify the calls for a forensic audit.

This was contained in a letter addressed to the Chairman of the NDC, Mr. Johnson Asiedu Nketia, in response to the petition submitted to the EC by the NDC at the end of the party’s demonstration on Tuesday, September 17, 2024.

In the letter that was copied to the Majority Leader of Parliament, the Minority Leader, Civil Society Organisations, the Diplomatic Community and Foreign Missions in Ghana, the National Peace Council, the Christian Council of Ghana, the Ghana Pentecostal and Charismatic Council, the Chief Imam, and the Ahmadiyya Mission, the EC said:

“…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 voters 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 that the party's call is currently not justified.

It indicated that there are still more processes available to clean up the voters register.

“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.”

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