PETITIONER ADVISES EC BOSS AGAINST ELECTRONIC RESULTS

Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com

By William Yaw Owusu

Thursday, November 24, 2016

The man who dragged the Electoral Commission (EC) to the Supreme Court to compel the commission to give Constituency Collation Sheets to the various parties has written to the Chairperson of the commission, Charlotte Osei, advising her to avoid using the Electronic Transmission of Results (ETR) methodology in this year’s elections.

According to Kwesi Nyame-Tease Eshun, a lawyer and for Director of Research at Parliament House, it will be in everybody’s interest to ensure that all the 275 Constituency Collation Centres (CCC) are brought to the headquarters of the EC before the chairperson, who is the returning officer for the presidential ballot, declares the final results.

He said in an open letter dated November 20 that “it is this mode of reporting and not the Electronic Transmission of Results (ETR) methodology that will resolve all any controversies that would arise on December 7.

He said the EC boss, in an interview with the BBC recently, got some issues wrong when she said manual results (those sent by fax) rather than the ones sent through e-transmission is the legal one, adding that both forms of transmission were still done electronically and those presented by the Returning Officers physically should be the legal documents.

“Should the EC go ahead to use the methodology of ETR to announce and declare results before going to look at the signed original hardcopies in the custody of the 275 returning officers, the EC will be caught and clothed with the unpleasant label of ‘putting the cart before the horse’,” saying that the physical documents of the 275 returning officers will resolve controversies.

He said the transparent reporting format was a major contributing factor to the success of Nigeria’s May 2015 election, as explained by Prof. Attahiru Jega who was the head of that country’s electoral body.

“Imagine the ensuing confusion were the chairperson to announce and declare even one result from the ETR which is at variance with the ones in the possession of the contesting presidential candidates. It is for this reason that that we strongly urge the EC to wait and receive the original of the Presidential Elections – Result Collation Form (Form One E.L. 23B), before announcing the results.”

Mr. Eshun admitted that the EC in the past had used faxed collated results to announce final results but the practice has been overturned by the Supreme Court order that Constituency Collation result sheets should be signed and given to the candidates to ensure transparency, accountability and legality.

He said the proper legal documents are the physical, manual completed signed original hardcopies to be issued by the EC to the candidates and those are what the commissioner is required to use in the declaration and not any faxed or electronically collated results.

“Dear seven eminent members constituting the EC, I earnestly appeal to each of you, to your sound judgment and conscience to ensure that the right and proper thing is done,” he said.