The Electoral Commission (EC) of Ghana has stated that the request of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) for a forensic audit of the voter's register for election 2024 is premature.

For several weeks now, the NDC has raised concerns about some irregularities in the voter's register, declaring a nationwide demonstration against the EC on September 17 following its refusal to accept an independent audit of the register.

The calls became louder after the EC admitted that some of its district officers had transferred votes illegally without recourse to the law, an anomaly the Commission says it has corrected and penalized the officers involved.

According to the EC, the purpose of the exhibition exercise was to correct any discrepancies in the provisional voter's register before it was finalised for the December 7 general elections.

Briefing the press on the exhibition of the provisional voter's register on Thursday, September 12, the Deputy Chairperson in charge of operations at the EC, Samuel Tettey said a forensic audit of the voter's register is unnecessary at this stage.

He explained that the voter's exhibition exercise in itself is an audit, stressing that the exhibition offers an avenue for the auditing of the register.

“The NDC’s detection of discrepancies with the provisional voters register is not new. As the commission has maintained, the essence of the exhibition exercise is to correct discrepancies, this is what is being done as has been the case in the past.

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“The commission is of the view that the forensic audit is not what is needed at this time, it is premature,” he said.

Mr Tettey said that the voter exhibition exercise 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,” he added.

He noted that contrary to what is being alluded to, the voter's register has never been audited since 1992.

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Mr Tettey reiterated that the law makes provision for the self-auditing of the voter's register through the voter's exhibition exercise, noting that the exercise makes available the provisional copy of the register and allows citizens to verify their details and point out discrepancies with their details.

He added that the same law allows for the correction of these discrepancies by the EC at all levels from the field to the districts to the head office, noting that this is the laid down process, questioning what purpose the proposed forensic audit serves.

“The Commission is of the view that such an audit will add no value whatsoever to the well-defined tried and tested processes documented for the cleaning and strengthening of the provisional voter's register. The question is, should the forensic audit be conducted, who will fix the discrepancies in the register? The answer is it is the same Commission that will fix the discrepancies and that is what we are doing. 

“It is for this reason that the EC is of the view that the call for a forensic audit is misguided. The Commission believes that, as has been the case in the past, the exhibition exercise will contribute to the strengthening of the voter's register,” he added.

The Commission appealed to the NDC through its presidential candidate to return to the dialogue table as a demonstration will raise unnecessary tensions ahead of the election.