Member of Parliament for Sekondi constituency, Andrew Egyapa Mercer has slammed the largest opposition National Democratic Congress over their call for forensic audit of the voters’ register.

The National Democratic Congress has over time been emphatic on their request for the register to be subjected to auditing by a foreign entity as they claimed the register is replete with irregularities and they don’t believe the Electoral Commission to do a proper cleaning of the register for a successful and transparent election on December 7.

But during an IPAC meeting on Tuesday, October 1, the Electoral Commission set the record straight.

Speaking during the meeting which was telecast live, the Chairperson, Jean Mensa clarified the issues.

She explained; “Ladies and Gentlemen, following a meeting, called at the instance of the NDC to discuss the discrepancies detected by the party, the NDC presented five categories of issues they had identified with the PVR. At the meeting, they presented a few samples of each category, following this, the Commission requested the full data from the NDC with the assurance that it would investigate the data presented and provide a report of its findings to the NDC within a week.

“The Commission went on to assure the NDC that the issues they had presented to the Commission were the typical issues that usually arose from any Voter Registration exercise and which found expression in a PVR. The Commission explained at the meeting that the very essence of the Exhibition Exercise was to unearth discrepancies such as those detected by the NDC.

“That notwithstanding, we requested the data for the sole purpose of addressing each issue case by case in order to allay the fears of the NDC and put them at rest. Unfortunately we have not received the data and the debate as to the credibility or otherwise of the PVR has continued. It is for this reason that the Commission felt it necessary to hold this meeting of political parties in order to present the parties with an opportunity to present any discrepancies they may have detected with the PVR.”

She further stated that “it is important to emphasize that the register in question is a provisional one. As its name suggests, it is provisional. Webster dictionary defines provisional register as a draft. It is not the final register. – It is nowhere near perfect and it is nowhere near final”.

The Electoral Commission however assures Ghanaians they are “working tirelessly to ensure that the 2024 Election is free, fair, credible and transparent”.

“We are mindful of the importance of the Voters Register in an election. It is the bedrock of an election. Indeed, an accurate Voters Register is sine qua non to a fair, transparent and credible election. It is in our interest to produce a credible and robust final register and a transparent, fair and credible General Election. We did this in 2020 – we urge you to trust us to do it again,” Mrs. Jean Mensa emphasized.

This has neutralized the tension over the register with the NDC no longer loud on their forensic audit call.

Commenting on the matter on Peace FM, Egyapa Mercer found the NDC request to have born out of insincerity.

To him, the NDC’s call was needless, as if indeed they had identified issues with the register, they knew how to lawfully bring the Electoral Commission’s attention to it for rectification.

He opined that the live telecast of the IPAC meeting has put to rest the controversies about the register which originated from the NDC.

To Egyapa Mercer, the NDC made “baseless claims just to excite their base”.

However, he wondered what they sought to achieve by going the route of demanding forensic audit of the register.

“What was all the noise about?”, he questioned.