Volta region was least problematic during elections - Kanga

Mr. David Adenze Kanga, Deputy Chairman of the Electoral Commission (EC) in charge of operations, said on Wednesday that a review of last year's elections by the EC has so far shown that the Volta Region had the least number of problems during the exercise.

In an interview with the Ghana News Agency, he said, "I was in charge of the Volta and the Eastern regions and I can tell you that most of the allegations made about electoral malpractice in the Volta region are not true."

"In fact the region was relatively less problematic during the elections," he said.

Mr. Kanga said apart from Ho West, where polling agents committed an error by including proxy votes in the mainstream, which led to the acclaimed 100 per cent voter turn out in the region, there was virtually no problem anywhere else.

During the run-off election on December 28, 2000, reports of various forms of malpractice, including multiple voting, intimidation, voters register manipulation and assault were levelled against the NDC in that region.

People of the region were alleged to have threatened to brutalise polling agents of the New Patriotic Party (NPP).

Mr. Kanga said there was no way anyone could manipulate the voters register, adding: "We gave copies of the register out to anyone who asked for them but that meant nothing since the original ones used during the elections were in our possession.

"Even if we had given out ballot papers to citizens prior to voting day, there was no way anyone was going to get those ballot papers into the ballot boxes, because the system made that impossible," he said.

Mr Kanga said it is on record that a certain level of intimidation of voters and polling agents occurred in all the 10 regions, adding that as for the issue of multiple voting, the EC investigation proved that it was simply not true.

Mr Kanga called on the public to disabuse their minds of the notion that the Volta Region, which happens to be the stronghold of the NDC, was poised to be problematic to warrant recount or abolishing of votes in that region.

Mr. Kanga said malpractice during elections is just a third of what constitutes electoral rigging, adding that rigging begins from demarcation of electoral areas, through voter's registration before the elections proper.

"These three areas constitute that totality of the functions of the EC," he said. "We have realised that the root cause of the problem has to do more with the demarcation of electoral areas than the other two."

Mr Kanga said now that the elections are over the EC has several demarcation issues to deal with. There have been calls for re-demarcation of certain constituencies. "Whilst a constituency such as Bantama is small but highly populated, some constituencies, particularly in the north are very large but least populated."

"We are therefore taking a critical look at all the petitions people have filed to ensure that the proper thing is done before the next elections."