EC explains why internet disruptions will not affect 2024 elections in any way

The Director of Electoral Services at the Electoral Commission (EC), Dr Serebour Quaicoe, has given a detailed explanation of why the current internet disruptions will not affect the upcoming general elections in any way.

According to him, although computer plays various roles in the electoral process, some critical tasks such as ballot paper collation and voting are conducted manually.

He further indicated that the collation of the results would be done using a computer without internet connectivity to expedite the process more efficiently.

Speaking in an interview with Citi News monitored by GhanaWeb, Dr. Quaicoe urged the general public not to panic about the recent internet disruption because it will not affect the 2024 elections as perceived by some members of the public.

“On election day, everything is manual, reading does not use the internet. Voting is done, basically without e-voting. People are given ballot papers they go and thumbprint. That has nothing to do with the internet, when the results are counted, it has nothing to do with the internet.

“The officers will physically send the results to the collation centres, and the results will be collated manually on the access sheet, which has no internet connectivity,” Dr Quaicoe said according to citinewsroom.com.

He continued: “When they finish at the constituency, they will send the result to the regional office, no internet usage. The region will also do the collation just using the computer without internet connectivity. When they finish, they will send the results through a fax machine to the head office.

"Then the head office will also do the collation and announce the results. So, the election day has nothing to do with internet connectivity. Except for the exhibition time and registration time where we use our…routers and other things from MTN and other providers, we use their facilities, but that is not internet-based. It’s just normal data that we’ll use.”

The assurance comes amid concerns raised due to recent cuts in undersea fibre optic cables, which have significantly impacted mobile network operations since March 14, leading to widespread internet outages across the nation.

The National Communications Authority (NCA) has served notice to the public that the four subsea cables from Ghana to Europe through Cote d’Ivoire and Senegal are still out of service.

Ghana’s leading digital news platform, GhanaWeb, in conjunction with the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, is embarking on an aggressive campaign which is geared towards ensuring that parliament passes comprehensive legislation to guide organ harvesting, organ donation, and organ transplantation in the country.

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