Full Text: NPP's response to NDC's call for independent audit of voter's register
Source: myjoyonline

Friends from the media, ladies and gentlemen, the leadership of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) is pleased to have you in attendance for this press conference despite the short notice. Ordinarily, given the demanding nature of our national campaign, the New Patriotic Party would have ignored the NDC for yet again, another needless demonstration in their desperate attempt to make a mountain out of a molehill regarding the Provisional Voters Register for the 2024 general elections. However, as the governing Party in Ghana, the NPP is a major stakeholder for all election related matters and cannot be silent on issues pertaining the 2024 provisional register. Even more so, the NPP’s position on the subject matter has become necessary following an open invitation from the NDC for our opinion. In a post made on his Facebook wall on September 6, 2024, Dr Omane Boamah, Director of Elections for the NDC, questioned the loud silence of the ruling NPP on the alleged discrepancies with the provisional register and insinuated that we stand to benefit from the manipulation of the register and electoral processes. In view of the above, the NPP, as an important and legitimate stakeholder of election-related matters in Ghana, has every right to share its opinion on the 2024 provisional voters’ register. Background As many of us are already aware, the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) on Tuesday, September 17, 2024, embarked on a nationwide demonstration against the Electoral Commission on what they have termed as alarming irregularities, discrepancies and unauthorized manipulation of the Provisional Voters’ Register for the 2024 general elections. It is worthy of note that before their demonstration, the Electoral Commission granted a stakeholder meeting with the NDC on Friday September 6, 2024, after the NDC had requested for a meeting in a letter dated August 27, 2024. The meeting accorded the NDC an opportunity to present their concerns of alleged discrepancies regarding the 2024 Provisional Voters’ Register to the EC. It is also public knowledge that during the said meeting with the Electoral Commission, the NDC indicated that they had identified five issues with the Provisional Voters’ Register, details of which include; missing names and photos of registered voters, misplaced voter transfers, deleted names of registered voters, unidentified voter transfer paths and unauthorized voter transfers. On the basis of the above concerns regarding the provisional register, the NDC implored the Electoral Commission to accept an Independent Forensic Audit of the provisional register and re-exhibit same. Ladies and gentlemen, we can also not run from the fact that during the September 6, 2024 meeting, the EC requested the NDC to furnish it with details of all the discrepancies it had identified. Till date, the NDC is yet to submit such information to the EC. Demands by the NDC Friends from the media, during the September 6, 2024 meeting with the EC and as detailed in their petition to the Commission on September 17, 2024, the NDC, on the basis of their own established discrepancies with the provisional register, is demanding that the Electoral Commission does the following: (a) Permit an Independent Forensic Audit of the Voters Register and its IT System (b) Convene Stakeholders Meeting (c) Agree to Publish the Findings of the Forensic Audit (d) Re-exhibit the Register after the Forensic Audit (e) Review and Correct all Unauthorized Transfers (f) Adopt a Revised Timeline for Electoral Activities and, (g) Institute Accountability and Integrity Measures. Position of the NPP Friends from the media, ladies and gentlemen, we in the NPP would be hypocrites to suggest that the NDC acted wrongly by engaging the EC with their concerns pertaining the 2024 provisional register and other matters of electoral concern. Historically, the NPP has been known for being lead advocates and crusaders for most of the electoral reforms that have positively shaped our nation’s democracy. From campaigning against the use of opaque ballot boxes to demanding the introduction of voter identification cards with pictures, and the usage of biometric verification devices, the NPP has always been at the center and front of advocacies that seek to guarantee free, fair and transparent elections. However, what many Ghanaians and the NPP cannot comprehend, is why the NDC has still not submitted to the EC, detailed information of its so-called irregularities, discrepancies and unauthorised manipulation of the provisional register despite several appeals by the E.C. For instance, in Page 2 of their petition to the EC, the NDC stated emphatically that they have uncovered evidence of Two Hundred and Forty-Three Thousand, Five Hundred and Forty (243,540) illegal transfers, Three Thousand, Nine Hundred and Fifty-Seven (3,957) deleted names of voters, as well as over Fifteen Thousand unidentified voter transfer paths in the provisional register. Yet, thirteen days after the NDC first met the EC on September 6, 2024, they have still not provided a single document to authenticate any of these allegations. We ask, is this not interesting? Indeed, if the NDC have any evidence of illegal transfers, why have they not submitted evidence for such an illegality to be reversed by the EC? We believe strongly that the nationwide demonstration by the NDC would have been justified had the EC failed to act after receiving evidence from the NDC on the alleged irregularities and discrepancies. As many of you will attest to, the NDC has a despicable reputation of throwing allegations around without any substantive evidence. It should be recalled that following the close of polls for the 2020 general elections, the NDC through several media engagements, declared former President Mahama winner (video attached) and in some instances, warned the EC not to change the verdict of the people. After the EC’s official declaration of the results, the NDC suddenly alleged rigging, and urged their supporters to demonstrate on the streets and also refrain from recognizing President Akufo-Addo as winner of the elections. Some of the demonstrations as we witnessed, nearly turned bloody, as their hoodwinked supporters assaulted security personnel and innocent Ghanaians with various harmful objects. As fate would have it, when the NDC finally had their day in court, their current National Chairman who was at the time, General Secretary of the Party, could not tell the Supreme Court the total votes that were amassed by the NDC and the total valid votes that were cast during the elections (video attached). It even becomes more interesting with revelations that were made by Mr. Asiedu Nketiah during his campaign for election as National Chairman of the NDC in 2022, when he boldly told a gathering of his Party supporters that the NDC’s own collated results for the 2020 general elections would have disgraced the Party in court, the reason he lied to Justices of the Supreme Court that he could not furnish them with figures of the Party’s collated results (video attached). It is obvious from Asiedu Nketiah’s own admission that the NDC knew from their own collated results that they had lost the 2020 elections. Friends from the media, ladies and gentlemen, it is obvious that we have allowed the NDC to get away with so many lies and deceptions. Lies that nearly tarnished our enviable democratic credentials in 2020 and in some instances, threatened the peace and security of our dear republic. Undoubtedly, recent outbursts by the NDC regarding the provisional voters’ register is just another grand old NDC strategy of lies and deception to court public sympathy and support in an election year. We are cautioning the public to be aware of the NDC’s crafted false narrative of an opposition Party being cheated by a state-controlled electoral body. We are challenging the NDC to submit not only to the EC but the media and general public, their so-called evidence of alarming irregularities, discrepancies and manipulation of the provisional register. As remarked by the Justice V.C.R.A.C. Crabbe led Panel on the Biometric Voters Register, which was constituted by the E.C. in 2015, ‘‘the veracity of the Register of Voters depends on the honesty of all citizens of Ghana’’. At least, for once in our lifetime, the NDC must be honest with Ghanaians. The NPP finds it difficult to comprehend the call by the NDC for an independent forensic audit of the provisional register for the 2024 general elections on the basis of alleged errors and discrepancies. Ladies and gentlemen, in addressing a critical matter of this nature, the law and history must always serve as a guide. The Constitutional Instrument on the Registration of Voter, C.I. 91 as amended by C.I. 127, anticipated such errors and made provisions for remedying any such occurrence. For emphasis, C.I. 127 makes provision for the resolution of discrepancies such as the inclusion of omitted names, removal of names of deceased voters from the register, correction to wrong spelling of names, correction to wrong registration center codes, replacement of poor quality Voter ID Cards, and also makes provision for the transfer of voters, special voters list and objection to names of unqualified voters on the register. Hence, the identification of any of such errors in the provisional register does not call for an independent forensic audit as being demanded by the NDC. A careful study of the petition submitted by the NDC to the EC vis-à-vis the provisions of C.I. 127, establishes one undisputed fact, there is no need for an Independent Forensic Audit of the provisional register as the existing electoral laws offer a clear pathway to resolving all concerns raised by the NDC. It is worthy of note that when the NPP, Let My Vote Count Alliance and a host of Civil Society Organizations made a clarion call for an independent forensic audit of the voters register in 2015 on the basis of errors and discrepancies in the voters’ register, the V.C.R.A.C. Crabbe led Panel made the recommendation that the Electoral Commission has always had the constitutional mandate to take the ultimate decision. The position of the panel was supported by Mr. Johnson Asiedu Nketiah, the then General Secretary of the NDC. During his presentation of a paper on the integrity of Ghana’s 2012 Biometric Voters’ Register, he insisted that the EC by tradition and convention, has always been able to cure errors and discrepancies in the voters’ register. Further, Mr. Nketiah, is quoted in Page 20 of the panel’s report that cleaning the voters register can be done using existing mechanisms; the exhibition procedures, challenging and objecting to names of unqualified persons in the register. Read also : ‘ I firmly believe an external audit of the voter’s register is necessary’ – Goasomanhene to EC Further, he boldly stated that ‘‘the process of deleting deceased persons from the register is the process of exhibition of the register. The main purpose of the exhibition is for us to raise objections to people whose names are there which ought not to be there. There are forms and the means of processing those objections that would lead to deletion of those names and it includes the deletion of names of dead people too. So opportunity is giving for people to present evidence. Because let’s face it, the environment we are operating in, if you say people should go and pinpoint the names of dead people for deletion without any evidence, I will go and pinpoint Kwabena Agyapong’s name and say he is dead’’ (video attached). From the video we have just seen, it is clear, that there are existing protocols to rectifying errors in the provisional register and paramount to such protocols is the need for stakeholders to submit to the EC, an evidence of registered voters who should either be added to or deleted from the provisional register. On the basis of the panel’s position and that of the NDC which was communicated by Mr. Asiedu Nketiah, the NPP and other stakeholders abandoned their quest for an independent forensic audit of the 2012 voters’ register and agreed to the use of voters’ exhibition exercise to address our concerns. In view of the above, we want to ask the NDC, what has changed? Why, are they running from that tradition and convention? If there was no need for an independent forensic audit of the register in 2015, why should it be done now? In playing the devil’s advocate, let us even admit there are errors with the provisional register. We humbly ask, how can such errors be corrected when the NDC are refusing to present evidence of the errors to the E.C.- the body clothed with the legal authority to supervise the compilation of a voters register? Ladies and gentlemen, we can equally not forget the words of former President Mahama, who in October 2015, stated that the Electoral Commission is an independent body mandated by law to ‘decide what to do’’ (video attached). So Mr. Mahama, why are you and the NDC not allowing the E.C. to decide what to do but are embarking on demonstrations? Hence, in view of the above, it is hypocritical for the NDC to be ordering the EC to conduct an independent forensic audit of the provisional register. Friends from the media, ladies and gentlemen, I will conclude my statement by referencing Page 70 of the report by the 2015 V.C.R.A.C. Crabbe led Panel on the Biometric Voters Register, which states that political parties and all citizens of Ghana should exercise vigilance and maturity when the provisional Registers of Voters are exhibited so that they can check the entries and thereby help the Electoral Commission to have a Register of Voters as credible and as clean as possible. It is a shared responsibility. We ask, where lies the commitment of the NDC to help the EC produce a credible register when they are refusing to submit evidence of an alleged irregularity to the EC? In view of the submissions made by the New Patriotic Party, it is obvious that the recent agitations by the NDC pertaining the 2024 Provisional Register is needless, deceptive, mischievous and a deliberate attempt to create tensions in the country knowing very well that they are bound to lose the 2024 general elections. May God bless our homeland Ghana and make us great and strong.