Pusiga district EC officer dismissed over unauthorised voter transfers

The Electoral Commission (EC) has fired the district electoral officer at Pusiga in the Upper East Region due to unauthorised voter transfers.

This resulted from an investigation conducted during the exhibition of the provisional register.

The outcome of the investigation showed that the officer made some transfers from two polling stations, which are the Tamale South constituency and the Sagnarigu constituency, to the Pusiga constituency without the approval of the voters.

This was disclosed in a response to a petition from the National Democratic Congress (NDC) demanding a forensic audit of the voters register.

“We acknowledge that our Officer in Pusiga carried out 38 unauthorized transfers. The said transfers have been reversed and the Officer’s appointment has been terminated,” the EC confirmed, a report by asaaseradio.com said.

The EC reassured the public of the integrity of its systems, stating that all transfers are thoroughly recorded, with details such as date, time, officers responsible for the transfers, which enhance verifiability within the Voter Management System (VMS).

Reacting to claims by the NDC concerning 15,000 instances of unidentifiable voter transfer paths, the EC said that the party is yet to provide evidence to support the allegations.

“All data, from registration to transfers and amendments are not deleted from the Voter Management System. All voters registered in the VMS can be accounted for,” the Commission assured.

EC also clarified that if a situation arises where the voter data is corrupted, there is either paper or electronic evidence that confirms registrations which the commission identifies and invites missing voters to be added to the Provisional Voters Register.

In response to calls for re-exhibition of the voter register, the EC stated that due to time limitations, the commission cannot conduct a physical exhibition but will provide online exhibition till December 7.

The EC reaffirmed its rejection of the NDC’s demands for forensic audit, arguing that the legal and administrative procedures for cleaning the register have not been fully exhausted, making such audit unnecessary at this point.

The commission stated, “As a Commission, we are of the view that the existing legal and administrative processes for cleaning the PVR have not been fully exhausted to justify the call for a forensic audit.”

RAD/AE