NDC opposes offline voter registration

The opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) has rejected the Electoral Commission's (EC) proposal to resort to offline voter registration if the current online mode continues to face challenges.

Instead, it has urged the Commission to promptly fix and restore data connectivity at all registration centers to maintain continuous registration, ensure timely data verification and enhance the transparency of the process.

The registration exercise, which began on May 7, 2024, and is expected to conclude on May 27, encountered numerous issues on the first day, including poor internet connectivity and malfunctioning biometric machines.

Consequently, the Commission instructed its officers to switch to offline registration should these challenges persist.

At a news conference in Accra on Thursday (May 16), Fifi Kwetey, General Secretary of the NDC, voiced opposition to the offline mode of registration, labeling it as deficient.

He argued that offline registration could undermine the integrity of the electoral process and expose the system to exploitation, including data manipulation and the introduction of errors that could skew the outcome.

"This approach lacks real-time oversight, making it difficult to verify data promptly and transparently, thereby opening the door to potential biases and manipulations—particularly in targeted districts and regions to the disadvantage of the NDC. These actions compromise transparency and trust," Kwetey stated.

He acknowledged that while technical challenges are an inevitable aspect of any large-scale logistical operation, registering voters offline is not the ideal solution.

He called on the EC to immediately address the systemic issues to ensure the efficiency and reliability of the electoral processes.

"We demand that the EC be proactive in implementing robust preventive measures rather than resorting to offline registration," the General Secretary emphasized.

Kwetey also raised concerns about incorrect figures released by the Commission during the ongoing voter registration exercise.

For example, he noted that on May 11, 2024, the Party alerted the Commission to anomalies in figures published on its website and social media handles. Although the EC acknowledged the issue on May 12 and made corrections, Kwetey claimed the "corrected" figures still contained errors.

In the Oti Region, for instance, he alleged that the Day Two figure of 578 was "erroneously" swapped with the Day Three figure of 1,515. If these figures were aligned correctly, the Day Two national total would be 18,330, not 19,267, and Day Three's total would be 49,553, not 48,616, as stated by the Commission.

"Similarly, the Day Three figure for Bono East in their corrected data is 771. However, this is incorrect. Bono East recorded 2,252 per our provisional data. This discrepancy will affect the total registered voters of 5,118 for Bono East for the four days as stated by the EC," he added.

"This situation exemplifies what we term 'transpositional rigging,' where figures are shuffled between categories without affecting the overall total," he explained.

He urged the EC to promptly rectify the inaccuracies in the data released on May 12, 2024, noting that such discrepancies could raise suspicions among parties.

"We expect a thorough review and correction of all figures to prevent further errors and uphold the integrity of our electoral process," he stressed.

He assured Ghanaians that the NDC remains vigilant and committed to safeguarding all votes, promising that every ballot cast on December 7 would be accounted for.

Kwetey reiterated calls for an independent investigation into the missing biometric verification kits to eliminate any mistrust among stakeholders.