A Political Scientist at the University of Gana, Dr Kwame Asah-Asante has told the electoral commission to ensure that it gets all the processes for this year’s election right.
This, he said, would engender trust and confidence in the commission to deliver credible polls.
“It is not an apology that Ghanaians want, they want a foolproof election. One of the things you can do to arrive at that is that you want to ensure that you get all the processes right, you get all the figures right,” Dr Asah-Asante said on the Ghana Tonight show on TV3 Monday, May 20.
His comments come at a time when the Electoral Commission corrected the errors associated with the daily registration figures it provided in the limited voter registration exercise.
Earlier, the Commission reported that 143,014 eligible voters had been registered by the end of day four of the exercise.
However, having identified some infractions in the figures it released at the end of Day 3, specifically in the Upper East region, the Commission, in a subsequent statement less than 24 hours after releasing these figures, acknowledged the errors in the data.
The Electoral Commission’s statement highlighted that there was a repetition of figures for day three in the Upper East region, causing inaccuracies in the total registration figures.
According to the EC, this admission underscores “its commitment to transparency and accuracy” in the voter registration process, ensuring that the public receives reliable information about the ongoing exercise.
“The Electoral Commission has noted some mistakes in the daily voter registration figures earlier published. The mistakes appeared in the total registered figures stated for days two and three although the individual regional figures were accurate, while the day three figure for Upper East was repeated for day four. All these have been corrected,” it said.
According to the EC’s breakdown of registration figures by region, the Greater Accra region has recorded 17,837 registered voters, followed by the North East with 3,948, the Upper East with 6,691, and the Northern region with 10,373. Other regions include Bono (4,900), Bono East (5,118), Volta (7,512), Upper West (5,256), Eastern (14,884), Central (15,434), Ahafo (3,889), and Ashanti (25,558).
Also, registrations from other regions include 5,638 from Western North, 4,206 from Oti, 2,989 from Savannah, and 8,781 from the Western region.
The EC says it committed to achieving its registration target by the end of the exercise, ensuring a comprehensive and accurate voter register.
The exercise, which commenced on Tuesday, May 7, entered Day 8 on Monday.
Moreover, the EC targets registering about 623,000 first-time voters.
Despite several challenges that have fraught the exercise, the Commission reaffirmed its commitment to ensuring that the country goes into the December 7 polls with a credible voter register.
