NDC Advocates for Fairness as Voters’ Register Re-Exhibition Begins

The National Democratic Congress (NDC) has welcomed a decision by the Electoral Commission (EC) to re-exhibit the Provisional Voters’ Register online as part of measures to clean the register.

The Party, in a statement signed and issued by Mr Fifi Fiavi Kwetey, General Secretary, NDC, appealed to the Commission to also consider an offline exhibition of the register at the exhibition centres.

“The Functional Executive Committee of the NDC has deliberated and decided to accept the EC’s promise to release to political parties, the corrected/updated version of the 2024 Provisional Voters Register for scrutiny within one week,” the statement said.

The NDC’s FEC meeting followed a Special Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC) meeting convened by the EC to discuss challenges with the Provisional Voters’ Register.

The meeting extensively discussed challenges with the Provisional Voters’ Register and the measures being undertaken by the Commission to make the register robust.

The NDC demanded a multi-stakeholder and interparty examination of the I.T. system of the EC to address vulnerabilities in the system.

“Clearly, the vulnerabilities in the IT system of the Electoral Commission can be exploited by criminals to compromise the integrity of the December 07, 2024, elections if not addressed,” the Party said.

During Tuesday’s IPAC meeting, Mrs Jean Mensa, Chairperson, EC, said the exhibition exercise conducted by the Commission provided an opportunity for all stakeholders to flag errors in the register, among other legal remedies provided in the electoral law to address errors in the draft register.

She said the Commission had “largely resolved” the discrepancies that were identified in the register during the exhibition exercise.

She said calls for forensic audit of the register were premature as the Commission had not exhausted all available processes to clean the register.

“The voters’ register is a draft not the final register. It is not perfect and not final.” Mrs Mensa said, adding that, “the register today is more accurate than what was exhibited and presented to the political parties in August this year.”

She said the EC would soon exhibit the provisional voters’ register online for registered voters to verify their details at no cost.