NPP's Jake proposed E-transmission of results - NDC

The National Democratic Congress (NDC) has revealed that the NPP, under the leadership of the late Jake Obitsebi Lamptey proposed the electronic transmission of results to the EC after the 2012 election petition case.

According to the party, the NPP’s claims that the Electoral Commission (EC) single-handedly decided to contract some IT firms to transmit the December election scores are untrue.

The NPP has said it is opposed to the decision by the election management body to transmit results electronically during the December 7 polls. It's campaign manager Peter Mac Manu in a statement accused the EC of taking a unilateral decision on the matter without consulting the political parties.

Addressing Journalists Wednesday, the NDC general secretary Johnson Asiedu Nketia said “...What the EC did not disclose is the fact that the whole idea of the E-transmission of Results was a proposal from none other than the NPP which was exhaustingly debated and accepted by the Committee before approval by IPAC and finally accepted by the Electoral Commission".

Adducing evidence to buttress his claims, general Mosquito, as Nketia is also known, cited a correspondence between the late NPP chairman and IPAC.

“...The commission may adopt the use of satelite transmission of results to the national tallying center pending the receipt of pinksheet from the regions.In this regard the EC should consider procuring handheld scanners to scan and send all pink sheets to Accra before collation and receipt of hard copies," the document noted.

Angered by NPP’s conduct over the matter, Nketia asked “...Is it not surprising that the NPP is kicking against the E-transmission and blaming its introduction on EC without notice or involvement of political parties?”

He warned that the posturing of the NPP has the potential of “subverting Ghana’s peaceful march towards a free, fair and transparent election in December this year.”

Meanwhile, Dr. Ransford Gyampo a senior lecturer at the Political Science Department, University of Ghana, has described the NPP’s opposition to the electronic results transmission as preposterous.

He said he could not fathom where “this (NPP’s opposition) is coming from as far as I am concerned the major parties were given representations at the Electoral Reform Committee”, saying the claims are “unfair to Ghanaians.”