STL’s role in elections: EC under pressure

Immense pressure is mounting on the Electoral Commission (EC) of Ghana to disclose full details of its contractual agreement with Superlock Technologies Ltd (STL) and their role in election processes in the country.

This follows two separate statements on the involvement of STL in the transmission of election results, which many find ambiguous and needs further clarification from the electoral body.

In the December 2012 polls, the opposition New Patriotic Party raised concerns about the alleged involvement of STL in transmitting election results to the EC.

The Electoral Commission vehemently denied this assertion, insisting that the company was never involved in transmitting election results.

The then Chairman of the Electoral Commission, Dr Kwadwo Afari Gyan, in denying the claims, stated:

“The commission’s attention has been drawn to allegations that it has engaged the services of a company to do electronic transmission and collation of results on its behalf.

“We wish to state emphatically that no such engagement has been made, neither is the commission doing electronic transmission of results.”

But barely four years after this denial, the issue of the involvement of STL in the electioneering process come up for discussion after a statement from the Minister of Interior, Prosper Bani, on Tuesday, March 29, 2016 stated otherwise.

The Ministry of Interior, giving an update on the activities of the three South African ex-police officers who were arrested by the Bureau of National Investigations for their involvement in activities which it claimed posed national security concerns, said: “STL is the company contracted by the Electoral Commission to transmit tallied election results.”

The New Patriotic Party was first to call for full disclosure and clarity about the contractual relationship between the Electoral Commission (EC) and its vendor, Superlock Technologies Ltd (STL), as it was unhealthy for the country to enter into another election with a cloud of suspicion on the role being played by vendors in the electoral process.

The NPP had argued that a full disclosure is more pertinent, especially when the Minister of Interior’s statement comes in the same month the EC advertised an open tender requesting for Expression of Interest (EOI) for the procurement of an ‘ICT-Based Election Results Management Systems’ (ERMS) in the upcoming 2016 November general elections.

“The information we collected from several sources is that STL’s contractual scope covers the cleaning, assembling of the voter registration kits, the maintenance of the hardware and software of the EC Data Centre, and the provision of communication lines for the EC. What does this all mean? The EC owes it to the general public to explain whether the above defines the entire scope of its current contract with STL and if so, what that entails, and if not what else has STL been contracted to do?” the party demanded.

The Coalition of Domestic Election Observers (CODEO) has also added its voice to calls for the Electoral Commission to come clean on its involvement with STL to help enhance the credibility of the commission ahead of the upcoming elections.

Speaking on Joy FM’s news analysis show Newsfile, National Co-ordinator of CODEO, Albert Arhin said it is important for the Electoral Commission to settle all doubts on the matter.

According to him, CODEO has never known STL to play any role in transmitting election results, adding that in a normal arrangement, results are sent from the polling stations to the constituency centres, where it is collated.

“So if there is anything contrary to this normal arrangement, then it ought to be explained to Ghanaians to know exactly what happened,” he said.