Voters Register is clean, robust and grantees free and fair elections – EC replies NDC

The Electoral Commission of Ghana has replied the National Democratic Congress (NDC) on their petition dated back to September 17, 2024 saying the Voters Register is clean, robust and grantees free and fair elections.

This comes after the NDC petitioned the electoral body for an audit of the Voters Register for the 2024 general elections after detecting error committed by the EC itself including illegal transfer of  votes.

The EC noted that, the crux of the NDC petition is that the discrepancies discovered in the Provisional Voters Register (PVR) make it unfit for the 2024 General Election hence their calls for a forensic audit. It added that once it is not the Final Register, the NDC has no reasons to call for a forensic audit.

It explained that the Commission displayed the “PVR at all Polling Stations (Exhibition Centres) nationwide to allow for an inspection and revision and correction where necessary”.

The EC has rejected the calls for a forensic audit of the Register, but assured that the “Commission has largely corrected all the discrepancies identified during and after the Exhibition”.

According to the Commission in cleaning the PVR employed a rigorous 4 pronged approach as follows:

1. Voters to our Exhibition Centres and via our electronic media, who detected errors with their details, had them corrected.
2. Exhibition Officers in all our 40,000 plus (Exhibition Centres) scrutinized the Register and reported discrepancies for correction.
3. District Electoral Officers relied on the Register Viewer to scrutinize the Register and correct discrepancies.
4. IT staff utilized the Register Viewer to scrutinize the register and reported discrepancies for correction.

“This approach has been effective in helping to clean the register and rid it of discrepancies. For the records, this same approach was adopted by the Commission prior to the production of the Final Register in 2020. It worked effectively. Evidence shows that there were no voters who were denied the opportunity to vote during the 2020 Elections. This is the same approach we have adopted to clean the 2024 PVR and we have no doubt that it will deliver the same outcome, namely a credible and robust Final Voters Register ahead of the 2024 Elections” portion of the EC reply read.

Read the full reply below;