Ghana not ready for e-voting – EC

Ghana is not ready for electronic voting, Dr Serebuor Quaicoo, Director of Elections at the country’s Electoral Commission (EC) has said.

In his view, there is so much suspicion among the political parties in Ghana, therefore, when the elections management body adopts the electronic voting system, which, according to him does not make it easy to prove allegations of electoral malpractices, it will further deepen the suspicion.

Dr Quaicoo said there will be unnecessary tension among the electorate in Ghana if the EC adopts e-voting system.

“I don’t think Ghana is ready for e-voting,” he told Kwabena Prah Jnr (The Don) on the Ghana Yensom show on Accra100.5FM on Monday, 8 July 2019.

“There is a particular political party in Ghana that is always calling for e-voting but what I can say is that we are not there yet,” he said.

He added: “The suspicion in our elections is very high and, so, when the technology comes in now, it will be problematic. With the electronic voting, there is no way you can verify but with what we have now, all the agents of the parties and the media see what is going on in terms of the collation of the results”.

“In my opinion, we are not there yet; it is a gradual process. We will get there one day but the time has not come yet”, Dr Quaicoo reiterated.