A video has emerged of the Chairman of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) explaining the purpose of Exhibition of the Provisional Voters Register.
The said video is in stark contrast to the decision of Mr. Asiedu Nketia to galvanise the NDC to go on a demonstration on the 17th of September, 2024, to demand for the Electoral Commission to agree to a Forensic Audit of the Voters Provisional Register, for reasons which include allegations that there are 50,000 names of dead people on the Register.
In the attached video, Mr. Asiedu Nketia is heard saying the following:
“I have indicated that there is a process for deleting deceased persons. It’s the process of exhibiting the voters register. After every provisional register is compiled, it is exhibited before we go into every election. The register is exhibited and the main purpose of the exhibition is for us to raise objections to people whose names appear which ought not to be there. There are forms for processing those names, those objections that will lead to deletion of those names. It includes deletion of dead people. So the opportunity is given to people to provide the evidence, because let’s face it, the environment we are operating in, if you tell people to go and pinpoint names of dead people for deletion without any evidence, I will go and pinpoint Kwabena Agyapong’s name as if he is dead!”
Many Ghanaians who have watched this video are wondering how this is different from the position of the Electoral Commission when Deputy Chairman in charge of Operations, Mr. Samuel Tettey, said during a press conference on Thursday, 12th September, that:
“The Commission wishes to inform the General Public that, the Voters Exhibition Exercise in itself is an audit. The Exhibition offers an avenue for the auditing of the Register. It unearths discrepancies and allows for prescribed legal processes to correct the discrepancies. Perhaps this is the first time the NDC has taken interest in the Register; otherwise one would have expected them to call for such an audit of the 2016 Register which contained photos of plants and animals representing Voters. It is important to note that, contrary to what is being alluded, since 1992 the Voters Register has never been audited.
“The Voters Register Exhibition Exercise in itself is an audit. The Exhibition offers an avenue for the auditing of the Register. It unearths discrepancies and allows for prescribed legal processes to correct the discrepancies. Perhaps this is the first time the NDC has taken interest in the Register; otherwise one would have expected them to call for such an audit of the 2016 Register which contained photos of plants and animals representing Voters.
“The Exhibition Exercise enables citizens to verify their details and allows for the unearthing of discrepancies in the register. Additionally, it provides for the correction of discrepancies in the Register. This is not new. This has been the practice since 1992. The process of cleaning and strengthening the Voters Register is well defined by law.
“By An Electoral Analyst “
