There is a scheduled Interparty Advisory Committee (IPAC) meeting on Wednesday, September 18 where the National Democratic Congress (NDC) is expected to present all their concerns with the voter register, Chairman of the National Peace Council, Rev. Dr Ernest Adu Gyamfi has said.
Dr Ernest Adu Gyamfi asked the NDC to agree to engage the commission on their concerns rather than put out their grievances in public.
“I think the most important thing is to go to the discussion table and put out the issues there, just putting them in the public domain does not solve any problem,” he said.
He added “Let them finish the clean-up, if they finish the clean-up and then we realise that there are still errors, I think that everybody in this country will agree with you.”
“If errors have been identified, we believe that the best forum is to present those errors, get them corrected and then we can go back to look at what the correction is. Where are we? Have we corrected all the issues and the challenges we have? If it is not? Then we look at the way forward. “But if we have not done the correction and we are calling for an audit, then I’m wondering what else we may identify because we need to find those errors now, clean-up and we can move forward,” he said on Monday, September 16.
The NDC is organizing the “Enough is Enough” demonstration nationwide today, Tuesday, September 17 to protest the commissions’ refusal to conduct a forensic audit into the voters’ register as they demanded.
The Electoral Commission had turned down a request from the NDC for an independent forensic audit of the provisional voters’ register.
This rejection came after a closed-door meeting between the EC and the opposition party, following concerns raised by the NDC regarding alleged discrepancies in the voter roll.
Dr. Edward Omane Boamah, Director of Elections for the NDC, expressed disappointment, emphasizing that a forensic audit would be essential in restoring confidence in the electoral process. “They have not accepted the independent forensic audit request,” Dr. Boamah stated after the meeting.
The NDC has been vocal about their concerns, particularly regarding what they describe as the extent of manipulation in the voter transfer system. They argue that the provisional register contains illegal transfers that could potentially undermine the fairness of the upcoming 2024 elections. The party has called for transparency, requesting the involvement of independent experts in auditing the voter list.
Dr. Boamah stressed the importance of an external body handling the audit, comparing it to a medical referral system.
“The very doctor who created the problem should not be the doctor that will resolve the problem,” he said. He added that development partners, including the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), are willing to support the audit process, but it requires the EC’s consent.
“The UNDP is ready and willing to provide the support only if the Electoral Commission will write and request the support,” Dr. Boamah noted.
Despite this, the EC remains firm in its decision not to proceed with the audit.
But Rev. Dr Ernest Adu Gyamfi wants the grievances of the NDC to be addressed at Wednesday’s IPAC meeting.
“We were working towards a possible IPAC meeting today [September 16] so that we could resolve all the issues, the NDC thought it would disrupt their plans for their protest. The EC also had challenges because of the L.I that regulates the filing of nominations, they have to vet the presidential candidates between today and tomorrow to determine those who qualify on Wednesday.
“But there’s already a scheduled IPAC meeting on Wednesday and we are hoping that at that meeting, whatever issues there are, we expect that the NDC presents its grievances for it to be looked at,” he stated.
