As Ghana lurches towards December 2024 when it goes to poll to elect a new President and Members of Parliament, issues related to the polls continue to make headlines. The Electoral Commission (EC)in a press conference refuted the allegation that its systems have been compromised thus, it cannot conduct a credible election devoid of issues come 7th December 2024.
EC’s Deputy Chairperson in charge of Corporate Service, Dr. Bossman Asare assured the Ghanaians that the Commission is prepared to organize a clean poll. praising what he described as his outfit’s robust and secure systems.
“We want to assure each and everyone and the good people of our country that our systems are secured and very robust. We are going to organize another transparent, credible election which will go down as one of the best. Anyone who thinks that there’s a problem, we are convinced and certain that all our systems are secured and we are ready for the activities of the year.”
Dr. Boss Asare
Addressing the alleged “theft” of Biometric Verification Devices (BVD), Dr. Bossman outrightly refuted the claim and described it as a rumour. However, he indicated that five laptops belonging to the Commission were missing. He emphasized that, on the matter of the missing laptops, efforts are ongoing with the police to investigate the whereabouts of the device and to further prosecute anyone found culpable in the matter once investigations are complete.
Furthermore, Dr. Bossman, re-echoed his words of assurance that the case of the missing laptop cannot undermine nor compromise the integrity of the Commission’s systems, saying “We are fully ready for the election and we can confirm that five laptops have been stolen and these are laptops that do not contain any information about anyone. They do not contain information, so there are no risks.”
On The Missing BVD’s
On March 19, Cassiel Ato Forson, the Leader of the Minority in Parliament broke the news of some missing Biometric Verification Devices (BVD) and impressed on the police service to shed more light on the matter and their investigation. “The Electoral Commission Confirms that Seven Biometric Devices are indeed missing. I urge the CID and Ghana Police Service to immediately issue a statement providing details of the progress of their investigations thus far.”
The EC’s Deputy chair clarified what he felt was a lack of understanding of the technical bit of the matter saying “We are also picking up information that people are contradicting the BVDs and the BVRs. BVDs are used for verification and BVRs are for registration”.
Toxic Relationship
Until the recent détente, the EC and the National Democratic Congress were on a collision course. The opposition party accused the electoral umpire and its leadership of outright bias and further alleged that the EC in cahoot with NPP robbed it of its mandate in the 2020 election.
Nonetheless, the NDC had no option but to work with those it distrusts and EC is accused of bias going into election 2024. In this regard, the party does not shy away from utilizing any opportunity it gets to berate the EC.
Additionally, Honourable Ato Forson expressed deep worries and anxiety over the missing devices. In what can be described as a subtle attack on the governing party and suggesting that perhaps it is a collision,
“I am concerned and worried because those devices in the hands of an unknown person can compromise the future elections that we will have. Who knows whether this is in the hands of a political party? And who knows what that political party is doing with it? I am disturbed.”
Henceforth, the Electoral Commission institutes a transparent review of its systems as well as the investigation of the missing devices. Otherwise, it risks a return to the pre-IPAC days of mistrust, insinuations, and open hostility which are not healthy for Ghana’s democracy, elections, and the EC as a corporate entity.
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