Election Validation Intelligence (EVI), an advocacy group focused on improving election transparency, has proposed a significant reform to Ghana’s election validation process.

The proposal aims to address challenges in the pre-voting and post-voting phases of elections to ensure that presidential, parliamentary, and other elections reflect the “true will of the people”.

According to BVI, current issues with Ghana’s election validation include difficulties in verifying voter identity, preventing multiple voting, and handling irregularities such as ballot box tampering. The existing process involves ballot papers with numbers and official stamps, but EVI identifies gaps that hinder the ability to prevent or address election violations.

EVI’s proposal suggests implementing a comprehensive voter-to-ballot and ballot-to-voter validation system.

This mechanism would link each voter number to a specific ballot paper number, creating an audit trail that maintains voter anonymity while improving election integrity.

Key benefits include enhanced verification, detection of unauthorized votes, and better support for judicial scrutiny in cases of electoral misconduct.

To implement this proposal, EVI calls for amendments to current voting regulations and the introduction of new measures to void ballots with discrepancies or multiple ballots from the same voter.

The group also emphasizes the need for legislative advocacy, voter education campaigns, and robust monitoring and evaluation to support these changes.

EVI urges the government, the Electoral Commission, political parties, and other stakeholders to back this proposal to promote a more transparent and credible electoral process in Ghana.