750,000 Ghost Names On Voters Register

When the Electoral Commission (EC) sets out to compile a credible voters’ register for next year’s general elections, one major hurdle it will be confronted with would be how to weed out or prevent the re-emergence of at least 752,000 ‘ghost’ names that corrupted the year 2000 electoral roll.

That year’s voters’ registration exercise yielded 10,698,908 names in a country of 18,912,079 people – representing 56.57%. But the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) which conducted a national population census that very year, 2000, determined that the total adult population of Ghana (18 years and above) was 9,946,846.

The 752,062 excess names, therefore, constituted 7.029% of the figure on the voters’ register and 7.56% of the total adult population.

Chronicle can actually say that the figure of fake names and those rejected more than once in the register will be more than a million. This is because the 752,062 number presupposes that all foreigners, lunatics and ex-convicts in Ghana who were 18 years or above were eligible to register and vote in 2000, which in reality, was not the case.

The figure also takes no account of people who were otherwise qualified to register but for religious and personal reasons abstained.

To clean the register of the fraudulent names or prevent their re-occurrence on a completely new one – as the EC is contemplating drawing up – the commission and the entire nation will need to know the distribution of the million or more ‘ghosts’ across the country.

The Volta region tops the list, a situation which prompted us to do a story exclusively on that region’s bloated register on April 23, this year.

The south-easternmost region has at least 124,202 excess names on the electoral roll. Its adult population at 2000 was 859,386 but the registered voters numbered 983,588. (It is the total adult population of 859,386 that the excess 124,202 formed 14.45% of, and not the 983,588 registered voters as mistakenly published in the April 23 story.)

In fact, the bloating of the Volta region register is seen to be more serious in view of the fact that it constituted 16.51% of the whole excess figure of 752,062. Brong Ahafo, with an adult population of 919,265 places second on the ladder of ‘ghost’ names with a 122,658 figure.

Its registered voters numbered 1,041,923 making the bloating 13.34% of the adult population, and 16.3% of the national bloated figure. Eastern region recorded 1,096,646 adults in the population census; the total number of people registered to vote however shot up to 1,187,573.

The difference of 90,926 means 8.29% bloating of the adult population and 12% of the national figure of 752,062.In the Western region, the adult population in the year under review was 996,236; 1,076,778 people registered to vote there, however.

The 80,542 extra names translate into a bloating of the qualified voters by 8% and also makes 10.7% part of the overall figure of 752,062. The capital region, Accra, with the second largest population after Ashanti, had an adult population of 1,845,889 voters. Excess was 91,167, which equaled 5.1% of the adult population and 12.12% of the overall bloated figure.

But Ashanti region that had the largest adult population (1,883,763) came up with a relatively cleaner register. It, in fact, registered 1,976,962 resulting in an excess of 93,199.

The excess in relation to the adult population is 4.9%. Though ‘ghost’ names in Ashanti formed 12.39% of the national total, the fact that that region is the most populous must be taken into account.

In the Northern region, people aged 18 years and above were 871,645 at the time of the year 2000 registration. But names that got onto the electoral roll rose to 931,211; the extra was 59,566.

At least the register got bloated by 6.83% and the Northern region is responsible for 10% of the 752,062 figure.

The Central region’s adults numbered 807,241 but 870,826 people got enfranchised in the region. The 63,585 more people made 7.8% increase in the maximum voters possible there and 8.45% of the overall inflation.

Four hundred and sixty-six thousand, eight hundred and thirty-eight (466,838) adults were in the Upper East in 2000; 480,894 registered to vote, however.

The surplus figure was 14,056, which meant 3% of the region’s maximum figure, and 1.8% of the national excess figure. Another relatively clean register is the one compiled in the Upper West region.

Those aged 18 and above there were 291,103; those who registered were 303,264.The 12,161 meant 4% bloating of the region’s electoral sheet and 1.6% of the national.

To make a re-registration or cleaning effective, some EC officials, political party leaders and teachers engaged in the previous registrations have suggested to Chronicle that several malpractices will have to be guarded against.

Among those who register illegally are some people below the mandatory age of 18 years. Some foreigners – notably from the West African sub-region – register illegally too.

And family members and other relations fail to report to the EC, their kith and kin who die for their names to be spiked from the register, they said. - AC Ohene reporting