Once a thief, always a suspect

In December 1992, Ghanaians went to the polls for the first time in 11 years. Accusations of electoral fraud and malpractices marred this event with the main challenger to the NDC party, the NPP, accusing the PNDC of having won an election through “a stolen verdict.”

During the 1996 elections, the opposition parties fully participated but lost. The losing opposition parties complained, however, that President Rawlings and his party, the National Democratic Congress, exploited the advantages of incumbency to a degree that rendered the result “free but not really fair”. Ghana achieved a victory for democracy on 7th January 2001 when Mr John Agyekum Kufuor, the presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party, was inaugurated as the President of the third parliament of the fourth republic. Despite some isolated cases of violence, the 2000 elections were exponentially freer and fairer than the controversial 1992 elections.

During the 2004 general elections, the National Democratic Congress accused the ruling New Patriotic Party of frustrating, pressurizing and intimidating the Electoral Commission (EC) to succumb to its whims and caprices to enable it to rig election 2004.

The NDC Candidate stressed that the EC, which demonstrated beyond doubt its ability to conduct transparent, free and fair elections in 1992, 1996 and 2000 was now fumbling seriously in doing what they are best noted for. "There is only one reason for this; a power above the Commission is controlling affairs without adhering to basic electoral regulations, principles and modalities," he said. He cautioned that the patience of the rank and file of the NDC had been tested to the breaking point through the intimidation, frustration and electoral rigging schemes of the NPP. Mr. Rawlings believes the NPP manipulated the 2004 parliamentary and presidential results, a sentiment he shares with many NDC apologists.

The stakes of the 2008 election were raised by the discovery of oil in Ghana and an expectation for incoming oil revenues to begin in 2010. The main opposition NDC, as expected, came out to say that they have incontrovertible evidence that shows that the NPP had hatched a plan to rig that year's elections. The presidential candidate of the NDC, Dr Mills, threatened “Kenya” on Ghanaians if the 2008 election fails to go his way.

Now, after accusations and counter accusations of vote rigging amongst the two major parties since 1992, it was just right for us as a nation to modernize our electoral system. It was for this reason why Mr David Kangah, the Deputy Electoral Commissioner, disclosed the idea of a biometric system of voting right after the 2008 elections. The idea of biometric is a totally new phenomenon to Ghanaians. The rational is to prevent or to reduce significantly, multiple voting and tampering with electoral figures. Hardly any election conducted in the country has been completely free of charges of irregularities, electoral malpractices, violence and various degrees of disruptions.

Biometric register and verification, it is believed, have three major causes that will result in one outstanding effect, namely: You register once; you vote once and you get counted once. In other words, it is only votes that are cast in an election that counts.

In order to eliminate or limit electoral fraud in Ghana, the main opposition party, the NPP and other parties, together with civil society, have made a strong case for the need for our EC to adopt this system of voting so that at the end of the day, all stakeholders would accept the outcome of the elections. Notwithstanding its benefits, Mr Asiedu Nketia, General Secretary of the ruling NDC has stated categorically that the NDC is against the electronic verification system being advocated by the opposition NPP. According to him “the electronic verification system could disenfranchise people in the unlikely event of a power outage on voting day since it operates with electricity and that 50 per cent of the Ghanaian populace was uneducated.”

So, why would a party which says it’s commit ted to a free and fair elections should be against a biometric verification, which, we are told, could reduce the potential for fraud and avoid disputed election results?

According to Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh, NPP's Director of Election Affairs, the NDC's negative attitude to the call for verification only lends some credence to claims that the ruling party intends to rig the 2012 polls. In his view, “anybody who is against verification is a potential electoral fraudster; anybody who is against verification is a potential electoral thief who wants to manipulate the will of Ghanaians for his own selfish ends and to create needless problems for the country.”

Since 1992, the two major parties have consistently accused each other of electoral fraud, manipulation and violence. Each pointing accusing fingers at each other`s electoral stronghold. Each claiming the other is the chief thief. Now, one of them is saying he is tired of stealing, and so wants to go for biometric authentication. Quite surprisingly, the other thief comes out strongly to reject any form of authentication. Why?? Why is that particular thief opposing verification? Is it because he has the intent to steal?

The burning question that now plagues us all is: Which of these two is the thief. Is it the NPP which argues strongly for verification or the NDC which is vehemently opposed to verification? You be the judge.

Desmond Frimpong, Norway