The National Democratic Congress (NDC) seemed to soften its entrenched position on the need for forensic audit of the electoral register following a meeting with EC yesterday, October 1.
This new development is as a result of EC’s demonstration that they have indeed resolved all the anomalies detected after the first voter exhibition a month ago.
According to Dr. Omane Boamah, the Director of Elections and IT of the NDC, the current problem of Electoral Commission is like the fruitless job of continuous mobbing of water in a room while ignoring the opportunity to block leakage in the roof which is the source of flooding problem.
This analogy shows the largest opposition party’s determination to see to it that, EC’s vulnerable IT system is fixed to prevent recurrence of the widespread anomalies that characterised the voter’s register.
The party also compromised on its demand for total overhaul of the electoral system following a promise made by the EC to make available corrected version of the register within a week for scrutiny.
The EC promised a second exhibition of the register but only online. NDC however asked for physical exhibition of the register since majority of the electorates would not be able to check their details electronically for errors.
'EC’s IT vulnerability; a threat to Ghana’s democracy'
According to the NDC, EC’s IT vulnerabilities may compromise the 2024 electoral process. They are of the view; steps must be taken to block the loopholes that allowed the errors to occur in the first place.
The party warned that if the IT system is not strengthened now, all the anomalies detected are likely to happen again before the December election.
“The Electoral Commission itself has admitted that its IT system is vulnerable. This is not just a technical issue, but a threat to the integrity of our democracy,”
“Criminals can exploit these weaknesses, and if not addressed immediately, we are looking at a compromised election.” NDC stated.
The opposition party also cited instances of corrupted and missing files on the 2024 provisional register. According to them, these and many more are serious threat to Ghana’s democracy.
They are also demanding thorough non-partisan examination of EC’s IT system.
“We demand a thorough, interparty examination of the EC’s IT system to address these vulnerabilities. This is not a partisan issue but a matter of national interest,” the NDC stated.
