Jean Mensa
The Chairperson of the Electoral Commission (EC), Jean Mensa, has announced that the provisional voters’ register for this year’s elections is ready.
According to her, the Commission has written to the parties and asked them to submit their hard drives to enable “us copy the provisional voters’ register for their use and information.”
Briefing Parliament on preparations towards the 2024 elections, the EC boss said in its quest to provide timely information of the registration details to the citizenry, the Commission missed a number of important steps in its data generation process.
“This resulted in some mistakes being made on some of the slides that we put out. We have since assessed our methods and introduced more rigorous processes which we believe will guarantee accurate data going forward,” she asserted.
Mrs. Mensa disclosed that the 2024 voters registration exercise was highly successful, pointing out, “It was inclusive, and highly participatory.”
“To date we have not heard or received any complaints relating to the disenfranchisement of citizens,” the EC boss said.
According to her, the Commission intends to undertake a mop-up voters’ registration exercise from August 1 to 3, 2024, to allow persons who turned 18 after May 29, 2024 to register.
The EC Chairperson indicated that the mop-up exercise will be held in all the Commission’s district offices across the country, including the newly created district.
“Additionally, we will extend the mop-up exercise to all prison centres across the country. We are working closely with the Ghana Prison Service, and we have obtained good details from them on the number of inmates in all the prison centres across the country,” she added.
“Honourable Members, as you may be aware, we conducted the application for the transfer of votes exercise as well as the replacement of lost ID cards in all our business centres from July 3 to 5, 2024.
“For this exercise, that is the transfer of application for the transfer of votes was also extended to security agencies. Unfortunately, Mr. Speaker, we experienced some pockets of violence during the 2024 voters’ registration exercise. Thankfully, no lives were lost,” she stated.
“The conflicts and violence stemmed mainly from the abuse of the guarantor system, which led party agents to challenge voters who were bused to the centres. As a Commission, we will continue to advocate for the use of the Ghana Card as a sole means to verify a person’s age and citizenship,” she contended.
The EC boss said they believe that the sole reliance on the Ghana Card was the surest way of ensuring a credible register and reducing the tensions and conflict that often characterise the registration exercise.
“Honourable Members, as you may be aware, we have also concluded the proxy voting and the transfer of votes exercise. This took place from May 30 to June 14, 2024. For us as mentioned, the application for the transfer of votes was extended for an additional three days, that is from the third to the fifth of July.
“And it covered the prison centres across the country. Indeed, both exercises were very successful. We have also concluded the compilation of the special voters list. This was held from June 17, to July 1, 2024, but was extended for an additional two days from the sixth to the seventh of July 2024,” she said.
Mrs. Mensa disclosed that the Commission has a total number of 131,005 persons made up of security agencies and media personnel on the special voters’ list.
“As was the case in 2020, we engaged with the heads of the security agencies including the Ghana Police Service, the Ghana Prison Service, Ghana Immigration Service, Customs, the Ghana Armed Forces, as well as the Ghana Journalists Association, and the Private Broadcasters Association, and briefed them on their modalities for the application for the special voting to ensure that they had a good understanding of how the process works,” she added.
By Ernest Kofi Adu, Parliament House