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By
William Yaw Owusu
Wednesday, November 26, 2014
The Election Reforms Committee of the New Patriotic
Party (NPP) will hold its maiden meeting today to discuss the country’s
electoral process.
The biggest opposition party is insisting that
should the Electoral Commission led by Dr. Kwadwo Afari-Gyan fail to embark on
the reforms even as directed by the Supreme Court, the commission would be
bringing chaos into the country in 2016.
Agenda
The committee chaired by Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia,
running mate of the NPP Presidential Candidate for the 2016 general election is
expected to build consensus and present a common position on the Voters’
Register, limited registration, eligibility of voters as well as audit of
election results.
Peter Mac Manu, a member of the committee and former
National Chairman of the party will chair today’s meeting since Dr Bawumia is
out of town.
The members will also sort out issues on receipt of
the final Voters’ Register, input of the political parties in the electoral
process and other pertinent issues bothering on elections in general.
Supreme
Court guide
A member of the NPP Elections Reform Committee,
Eugene Boakye Antwi said the committee
will be guided by the evidence adduced during the Landmark Presidential
Election Petition in the aftermath of the 2012 general election which the court
controversially declared for President John Mahama.
“We shall now tackle a number of the issues which
arose from the Presidential Election Petition from the Supreme Court so as to
suggest certain reforms which if ignored will tragically continue to haunt the
Republic,” Mr. Antwi said.
Discrepancies
“Ghana’s
Voters’ Register has been a subject matter of controversy to date. In the
Supreme Court, matters of concern were raised. Yet the EC announced on 9th May
2014 that it intended to carry out limited voter registration intended to
register Ghanaians who have attained age 18 since the last registration in 2012
and also for those who were above 18 at that time, but could not register in
2012.”
“It is pertinent to ask: While there are problems
with the Register, why don’t we clean it before further additions? And what is
the level of consultation with other stakeholders? Why is the public being
taken for granted? When will the EC open up to public confidence building
measures?”
Jaundiced
Register
The committee member said that the case at the
Supreme Court revealed clearly that “all is not well with Ghana’s register,”
adding “a case in point was the provision of different voters register to the
New Patriotic Party, for instance.”
In the course of the trial, the NPP had said that
total number of registered voters that the EC furnished the petitioners’ party (the
NPP) was 14,031,680 but it subsequently came to the notice of the Petitioners
that the EC had on Sunday, 9th December 2012, declared the total number of
registered voters as 14,158,890.
“Furthermore, on the same date, the EC posted on its
website the total number of registered voters as 14,031,793 showing a clear
disparity of 127,097,” adding “the Chairman of the EC, during the trial, could
not provide any cogent reason for this discrepancy.”
He said the party’s research showed that the results
declared indicated that the total number of registered voters for the parliamentary
election was 13, 628,817 adding “this was the same figure given earlier to the
political parties before the election.”
“This figure was clearly understood to cover both
Parliamentary and Presidential since we registered once and for both. However,
the moment the final results were pronounced, the EC indicated and gazetted
later that the figure for the total registered voters for the Presidential
election was 14,158,890.”
Cooked
Figures
He said “this figure had never featured before! Some
alleged that the difference of 530,073 had been manufactured last minute to
give “votes” to Candidate Mahama.”
“Notably, by
the EC’s own declaration the total votes for Candidate Mahama was 5,574,761 and
the total for Akufo-Addo was 5,248,898. The difference was 325,863.”
Overseas
Voters
He said when the EC was confronted about the
difference, the commission had explained that the difference in the numbers
between presidential votes and parliamentary votes was due to overseas
registered voters who were registered for presidential voting but not parliamentary
voting but in court it was able to provide only 705 registered voters.”
“The simple arithmetical difference of 529,368
“ghost” votes would never have been released or known and would have remained a
matter of allegations and counter-allegations, controversy and dispute till
today.”
Padded
Votes
“The results declared the NDC Presidential candidate
had a total of 5,574,761 votes while the total votes for all the NDC
Parliamentary candidates (by which they had majority in Parliament) was
5,127,641 votes.
The difference was 447,121 votes. It was useful to wonder how
this excess vote of 447,121 was not far apart from 530,073 that suddenly
appeared on the register to cater for the votes of the winner.”
Country
Comparison
He said Nigeria with a population of 162,470,737 has
a voter population of 67,764,327, representing 41.7% while Kenya, with a
population of 41,609,728 has a voter population of 14,362,189 representing
34.50%.
“Tanzania, with 42.50% and Senegal with 41.50% of
registered voters to their total populations are all significantly lower than
Ghana’s. South Africa boasts of a voter population of 25,390,159 out of a
population of some 53 million people, representing 47.9% of the total
population.”
Mr. Antwi said the NPP will recommend strongly “a
comprehensive Public Audit to be conducted into the current Voters’ Register
with international participation, as a guarantee to its credibility.”
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