Claims that we used old electoral system for piloting exercise false - EC

The Electoral Commission of Ghana has described claims by some members of the NDC that it used the old electoral system for the just-ended pilot registration exercise as false and unverifiable.

According to the Greater Accra Regional Director of the EC, Kwame Amoah, the two-day piloting exercise organised in all regional offices across the country was to give room to test the potency of the newly procured electoral system.

Thus, the claims by members of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) are not substantive enough.

Mr Amoah told GhanaWeb in an interview that the electoral system in use were “brand new ones which has not been used before, that’s why we are piloting it to see the strength of it. The essence of piloting is to identify likely hitches you’ll experience on the field. So, we are happy that some few hitches have emerged…”

The Greater Accra Regional Organiser of the NDC, Anthony Nukpenu after participating in the piloting process, on June 3, 2020, told media personnel, that the Commission couldn’t prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the system they acquired were new ones.

He insisted that the EC had been exposed for using the old electoral management system in the pilot registration exercise.

He is quoted to have said, “We engaged them and asked them questions whether it’s the old BVRs or new ones, but frankly speaking, we have concluded that it’s the old system they’re working with. They have installed new laptops and cameras to make it appear these are new BVRs. The appearance on the web station doesn’t show it a new one.”

However, speaking on the back of the accusation Mr Amoah said representatives of the NDC actively took part in the process, cooperated and asked relevant questions which helped speed up the work as well.

In an attempt to explain the components of the new electoral system, Mr Amoah said, “I’m happy you’re here to witness everything, this one everything is intact you don’t pick anything but the first one there was a platform within the case which you lift before you assemble the components but this one everything is intact, you don’t pick anything out.”