By William Yaw Owusu
There appears to be some behind-the-scene moves between the Electoral Commission (EC) and the Ghana Police Service to introduce more names into the already compiled special voters’ list, raising questions about the commission’s sincerity.
The move is likely to cause outrage and further raise doubts about the EC’s neutrality ahead of the December 7 crucial general election since the political parties are said not to be aware of the situation.
In addition, the EC’s final register, as posted on its website, is said to be different from the list submitted to the political parties.
The disparities are obviously causing anxiety among the political parties.
DAILY GUIDE sources say with 11 days to the special voting and with the EC already releasing 65,000 people as eligible special voters to all the parties, the police administration has reportedly written to the commission to key in more names of recruits in training to enable them exercise their franchise in the special political exercise.
The IGP, in a wire message sent to police formations – a copy of which is available to DAILY GUIDE – has charged commanders to liaise with the EC district officers to virtually compile new list of special voters – when the exercise had long been closed.
Breach Of C.I. 94
Sources say the move, when executed, would be a clear breach of C.I. 94 – the instrument being used to regulate the December 7 polls.
“As at November 18, there was a directive from the IGP to all police regional, divisional, district, and unit commanders to liaise with their respective EC officials to key in supposed missing names of all security personnel within their jurisdiction,” the source indicated.
He added that “it is an illegality that must not be allowed to stand.
“It is also inconsistent with the law, the directive from the IGP to officers commanding police training schools to liaise with police regional commanders to key in names of recruits in training on to the special voters list to enable them participate in the early voting.”
65,000 Voters
Clearly, it is being done at the blind side of the political parties because the EC released a list of some 65,000 it said were expected to cast their ballot under special voting on December 1, 2016.
Head of Communication at the EC, Eric Kofi Dzakpasu, recently gave the breakdown as 871 for media personnel, 23,567 for security services and 40,563 election officials and as far as C.I. 94 is concerned.
The application to be entered on the list of special voters has been determined and concluded as far back as October 28, 2016 – which was 42 days to polls day.
“The C.I. 94 spells out first of all, who qualifies to apply to be entered into the list of special voters and how that application process ought to be done. It also spells out where and when that process ought to be completed. And the directive from the IGP contravenes the provisions,” the source said among other things.
“As clearly stated in the C.I. 94, only an already registered voter can apply to be entered into the special voters’ list if the applicant meets the conditions set out by the law. Under Regulation 23 (1), a voter may apply to the returning officer of the constituency in which the voter is registered to be entered as a special voter if as a result of election duties, the voter will not be able to be present at the polling station where the voter is registered on the day of election,” it added.
“It is legally impossible to be having an exercise of adding more names to the special voters’ list which the law clearly states the application ought to be over and done with not later than forty-two (42) days before the polling day of December 7, 2016.”
Conflicting Final Register
DAILY GUIDE has also noticed an unusual occurrence on the website of the EC where the commission appears to be entering different figures for the total number of registered voters.
The EC’s official list sent to parties has total voter population of 15,683,910. But the figure on its website is different, where it posts 15,703,890 as the total number of people on the register, showing a clear difference of 20,980.
A similar incident happened in 2012 when the then EC boss, Dr. Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, declared the presidential results with figures different from what was given to the parties before the exercise.
He had declared President John Mahama of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) as president-elect with a register containing 14,158,890 voters; but before the election he had given the parties a register with 14,031,793 voters which accounted for a difference of a whopping 127,097.