By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.
Garden City, New York
August 14, 2015
E-mail: okoampaahoofe@optimum.net
First, there was the call by some starry-eyed New Patriotic Party (NPP) operatives for the introduction of a Biometric Voters' Register. The necessity for the BVR, we were told, was to ensure that voting fraud would be drastically reduced to the barest minimum or zilch. This was in the lead-up to Election 2012. Actually, the call may well have gone up during the 2008 election season. We were given the supposedly "perfect" example of the "glitchless" use of BVMs (Biometric Voting Machines) in India, the largest global democracy.
What I have learned since then, though, is that the effective application of any technology, at least where the electoral process in Ghana is concerned, has far less intrinsically to do with the quality and the nature of the concerned technology itself, but more to do with the culture, mindset and behavioral praxis of the people who opt for the use of such technology. Now, scarcely four years later, we are being given to understand that, after all, there is absolutely nothing amiss with the technology but, rather, there is everything wrong with the way and manner in which the current voters' register was composed or put together.
Now don't get me wrong, dear reader, I know the current voters' register has a lot of blemishes that leave much to be desired, not the least of which even Dr. Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, the recently retired Electoral Commissioner, admitted before the Atuguba-presided Supreme Court panel that adjudicated the 2012 Presidential-Election Petition. Back then, the former University of Ghana political science lecturer admitted that quite a critical mass of ineligible Ghanaian youths had, indeed, been illegally tacked onto the voters' register. Dr. Afari-Gyan would not, however, delve into any particular numbers or figures. What more than irritated me, however, was when the former Electoral Commission's Chairman also cavalierly added that absolutely nothing could be done to prevent these ineligible registered voters from casting their ballots in any election, local or national, except the discretion of the illegally registered voters themselves!
Now this is very troubling; and it is also primarily the reason why I strongly believe that President Mahama insulted the intelligence of the Ghanaian electorate and citizenry at large, when he honored Dr. Afari-Gyan with a national accolade for having been such a supposedly brilliant and excellent Electoral Commissioner recently.
My one great problem with the latest call for a new voters' register is that this is not the very first time that such call has gone up; and neither would it likely be the last time (See "CPP Backs NPP's Call For New Voters' Register" Citifmonline.com / Ghanaweb.com 7/14/15). But even more significant to observe, this is not the very first time that the voters' register has been contaminated by the illegal enrollment of minors or ineligible youths. And it is quite certain that both sides of the political/ideological aisle have been fully aware of such breach.
I can bet my proverbial bottom-dollar that this has been the case since the beginning of the postcolonial era, as also during the transitional period from 1951 to 1957. It is also very likely that the establishment of a new voters' register will not prevent this unsavory cultural conduct of dishonesty. And, by the way, the same dishonest behavior has surfaced at the international soccer arena, otherwise known as the "Under-Something" World Cup Tournament Series. If memory serves me accurately, Ghana has gotten suspended in at least one instance when some ineligible palyers were discovered to have been fraudulently registered to participate in the tournament.
What I have maintained in previous columns, and will continue to maintain in perpetuity on this subject, is that what is direly needed is not a new voters' register, but a systematic and meticulous auditing of the present one in order to weed out ineligible voters. And where necessary, to unfurl new legal measures to punish those who make the deliberate attempt of prejudicing the integrity of the voters' register. I have also suggested that the Electoral Commission, or whatever ministry or department is in charge of citizenship identification, distribute two different sets of ID cards differentiating minors from adult citizens.
In other words, all citizens below 18 years old, or the voting age, should be issued a differently labeled ID card from citizens 18 years and above. A reliable national voters' register, readily accessible via computer technology should also be promptly established in order to instantly ferret out ineligible citizens who attempt to scam the system, have them arrested and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. In short, opening up a new voters' register, without forcing a drastic change in our general national attitude towards civic rules and regulations, would not change anything. It would simply make a Sisyphean short work of even the best of our efforts.
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