-Says Current Register and BVDs functioned perfectly.
Independent election observer group; Coalition of Domestic Election Observers (CODEO) has exposed as a fabrication the Electoral Commission (EC) claims the current voters’ register is “overstretched” and would need a new compilation and biometric software.
According to CODEO which deployed over 1,000 observers across the country to monitor the just-ended local government elections say the Voters register and the Biometric Verification Devices (BVDs)used for the elections functioned perfectly.
A statement issued after collating information from its officials from across the country, said the BVDs functioned well in almost all polling stations, saying; “Biometric Verification Devices (BVDs) functioned well at 93.29% of polling stations, while 6.71% of polling stations encountered instances where the BVDs failed to function at some point in time on election day.”
According to the independent observer group, the paltry number of polling stations which had difficulties with their BVD system, allowed voters to go through manual verification to be able to vote.
This verdict from a neutral third party will suggest as unfounded claims by the EC that it needed to invest in a new biometric system and register in less than a year after their system have proven to have functioned perfectly.
The opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) and some other interest groups are suspicious that the EC’s frantic move to compile a new register despite facts showing demonstrations that the current register is fine is a scheme to rig the 2020 elections for the incumbent New Patriotic Party (NPP).
The EC has consequently had running with the NDC over the proposal for a new biometric voters’ register.
The EC has asked Parliament to approve GH¢444,846,663 for the compilation of a new voters register which it believes will be more credible and efficient than the existing one.
However, the NDC has vowed to resist any attempt for a new register. “The current voters’ register was used to successfully elect about 6,600 district assembly members and about 33,000 unit committee members. Yet the Electoral Commission is telling us that the same register cannot be used to elect one person and 275 Members of Parliament,” the General Secretary of the NDC, Johnson Asiedu Nketia recently stated.
“The current register was the one that was used to elect Nana Akufo-Addo and the NPP into office,” Asiedu Nketia noted.