General News of Thursday, 8 September 2016

Source: starrfmonline.com

E-results transmission: EC cancels tender process

Mrs Charlotte Osei, Electoral Commissioner Mrs Charlotte Osei, Electoral Commissioner

The Electoral Commission (EC) has cancelled the tender process to select an IT Firm for the transmission of results electronically in the forthcoming general elections.

Companies bidding for the contract to electronically transmit election results were invited last month by the commission to demonstrate how they will execute the project.

But,barely a month after their invitation, the tender process was abandoned. The commission, in a short statement Thursday announced that the tendering process has been cancelled explaining that none of the interested companies met the Commission’s expectations.

“Tender process for the electronic result transmission system has been cancelled because none of the tenders met the set criteria,” it said.

The Commission’s decision to electronically cart elections results to a national tallying centre courted severe criticism from the New Patriotic Party (NPP). The opposition party accused the commission of unilaterally taking the decision and that exercise is illegal.

It, however, emerged that the NPP through its former National Chairman, late Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey mooted the idea per a document presented by Johnson Asiedu Nketia, General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC).