The Electoral Commission of Ghana (EC) has refuted allegations by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) that the Provisional Voter Register for the upcoming December 7, 2024, general election contains illegal voter transfers.
According to the Director of Electoral Services at the EC, Benjamin Bano-Bioh, these claims are entirely unfounded.
Speaking during a panel discussion on JoyNews on September 10, 2024, Bano-Bioh clarified that the voter transfers being referred to by the NDC were not illegal but part of a standard process initiated since 2020.
“Please, there is nothing like 15,000 illegal transfers,” he said. He explained that the transfers in question were made between 2020 and 2024 and were included in the register to track voter movement.
Bano-Bioh emphasized that these transfers were legitimate and included to ensure the EC could monitor changes in voter locations over time. He noted that the commission had communicated these details to the NDC, including providing them with the updated voter transfer list for 2024.
The transfer list that was given to them was composed of transfers that we had done since 2020 when we compiled the register at first. So, it involved transfers made in 2020, transfers in 2023, and transfers made in 2024. These are people who have transferred to the various polling stations. They are not ghosts; they are not bloated. They are in the register. Yet, we have a list called transfer list and this time around we captured since the register was made, that is 2020.”
“They (the NDC) raised that issue and we told them that it involved transfers since 2020. And so, when you take that of 2020 from it and then 2023 from it, you come to get the actual figure. We told them that we have it and we even told them that if you deduct the two transfers – 2020, and 2023, you will get the same figure as they are talking about. So, it’s not a matter of it being bloated? It’s not bloated,” he staated.
“Initially, we wanted to track the movement of all the voters. That was why we did that and we decided to give it to them. But now they say they want the 2024. We have gotten that. And so, in our last meeting, we told them that that would be ready for them to see.
“We printed it out. We knew that the transfer list given was from 2020 up to the current year. As I indicated, we wanted to track the movement of all voters since 2020, and so we did that. Transferred,” he explained.
However, Dr. Rashid Tanko-Computer, Deputy Director of Elections and IT for the NDC, rejected the EC’s explanation, insisting that irregularities still existed in the voter transfer data. He claimed that the list provided did not properly account for transfers made since 2020 and included unverifiable entries.
The NDC continues to challenge the accuracy of the voter transfer process, maintaining that they have identified irregularities that require further forensic investigation.
Source: InsiderGH.com
