The founding President of IMANI-Africa, Franklin Cudjoe, has described as insulting, specifically to Ghanaians living in rural areas, the plans by the Electoral Commission to re-exhibit the register for the 2024 general election online.

Following calls led by the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) for a forensic audit to be conducted on the voter register, the Electoral Commission says it remains in the process of fixing various anomalies identified by the NDC and will re-exhibit the register online after the exercise.

But according to Franklin Cudjoe, plans by the EC to post the register on the internet instead of exhibiting it at the various polling stations is an insult to Ghanaians who live in villages that are not covered by network reach.

“So tell all your village folks who do not have access to the internet to go hang! Inglorious incompetents just mocking and insulting you. Trust them at your own peril,” he posted on Facebook in response to the announcement by the EC.

The announcement by the EC was contained in a letter in response to the petition submitted to the EC by the NDC at the end of the party’s demonstration on Tuesday, September 17, 2024.

The NDC made the following demand in its petition to the EC:

“Re-exhibit the Register after the Forensic Audit: The NDC further demands a 5-day re-exhibition of the Provisional Voters Register after the forensic audit is completed. This will enable registered voters, including those affected by the errors, to verify their details and confirm the integrity of the Voters Register. Without such a re-exhibition, many legitimate voters will be disenfranchised.”

Responding to the demand by the NDC for re-exhibition of the PVR, the EC indicated that a voter register would be exhibited but would be done electronically.

The commission explained that it is opting for an online exhibition of the register because of the nearness of the December 7, 2024, general election.

It added that the online exhibition of the register would come at no cost to voters.

“Whilst the Commission is not opposed to undertaking another physical exhibition of the corrected PVR in the entire 40,000 plus exhibition centres, given the amount of time it takes to print and distribute the PVR (some four weeks), it will not be feasible to achieve this due to the limited time to the general election.

"The Commission intends to implement an online exhibition of the PVR at no cost to registered voters. Voters will be able to report on anomalies with their details within a time frame to be made available to the public. The Voters Register will be displayed online until Election Day,” part of the statement reads.

On the NDC’s call for a forensic audit, the EC said that the party's call is currently not justified.

It indicated that there are still more processes available to clean up the voters register.

“… the Commission is of the view that the legal and administrative processes laid down to clean the PVR have not been fully exhausted to justify the calls for a forensic audit. We entreat the public to trust us to carry out our mandate.”



GA/KA