According to Dr. Serebour Quaicoo, Director of Electoral Services at the Electoral Commission (EC), the ongoing Limited Voter Registration Exercise has achieved remarkable success, as evidenced by the significant number of registrations received.
He pointed out that the Commission has successfully registered the vast majority of eligible citizens, and the two-day extension granted by the EC is intended to make up for the initial two days of registration delays caused by network and code accessibility issues.
“As of Wednesday, we have registered 603,002. We are left with about 20,000 [to reach the estimated figure]. We estimated based on the fact that Statistics from the Statistics Service projected that for the last four years, 450,000 people turned 18. We waited from 2020, that’s four years now, so 450,000 times 4 gives you 1.8 million. Last year, we registered 910,000…we are left with 890,000. We projected to register 70% and that gave us the 623,000 [target]”.
Dr. Serebour Quaicoo
Furthermore, he suggested that the Commission might consider conducting another registration exercise before the December 7th election, as new eligible voters are turning 18 daily, but emphasized that such a decision would only be made if deemed absolutely necessary by the EC.
Moreover, he conceded that the errors during the uploading of figures on the EC’s website, which resulted in a change of its infographic team, have tarnished the Commission’s reputation.
Dr. Quaicoo explained that the errors on the website were not due to any issues with the Commission’s statistics, but rather a mistake made by the infograph team, who incorrectly entered a figure, missing the correct total by a margin of 6000 in the initial instance.
“Then the second one too, they had the graph right but the figure for Greater Accra was repeated for Upper East region”. – Dr. Serebour Quaicoo
Furthermore, Dr. Quaicoo stressed that it is immaterial which party, in this case, the NDC, identified and brought attention to the errors, as the crucial aspect is that the mistakes have been rectified and corrected.
EC Uses Offline Portals As Backup
Moreover, Dr. Serebour Quaicoo explained that the Commission employs offline registration portals as a backup solution in areas with network connectivity issues or difficult access, and once network connectivity is restored, EC officials revert to using the online portal for registration.
“Weeding out [ineligible registrants from the register] is not an issue. Unlike the online, the offline is not connected so you will successfully register. But when we finish and upload the data that is where the system will do the duplication [check] by matching one person’s data with other people and it will come out that you’ve done multiple registrations. Once that is done, the system will flag you… in that you cannot vote”.
Dr. Serebour Quaicoo
Furthermore, he explained that when the system detects multiple registrations by an individual, the Adjudication Committee, comprising EC staff, civil society organizations (CSOs), and political party representatives, conducts a thorough review to determine whether these instances are genuine cases of multiple registrations, ensuring a fair and transparent process.
However, Dr. Serebour Quaicoo emphasized that individuals have the right to contest their inclusion on the multiple registration list and can seek legal recourse by taking the matter to court, where a judge will review the case and deliver a ruling after careful consideration.
He issued a stern warning that individuals who engage in multiple registrations will face criminal charges and potentially serve jail time, noting that numerous Ghanaians have been imprisoned during previous registration periods for electoral malpractices, including multiple registrations.
Addressing the issue of registrants misusing the guarantor system, he revealed that the Commission has implemented an upgrade to its system, which now prevents an individual from vouching for more than the allowed maximum of ten people.
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