Samples such as this are replete in the Biometric Voters’ Register.
The chairman of the Electoral Commission (EC), Dr. Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, has openly admitted that the Commission registered persons below the voting age.
Dr. Afari-Gyan added that overwhelming faces of people suspected to be minors in the Biometric Voters Register is a potential source of conflict on December 7.
Some of the faces in the register, copies of which the Electoral Commissioner showed journalists yesterday, clearly indicated that those children were between the ages of seven and 15. In some instances, about ten kids, all supposed to be18 years, were registered from the same compound. Incidentally, they all bore Aboabo address in Tamale in the Northern region.
Police Chief Warns
A couple of weeks ago, the Northern regional police Commander, DCOP George Tuffour, had warned that minors exercising their franchise during the December 7 General Election was likely to spark conflict.
“It is fearful that the trend is likely to turn into violent confrontations during the elections,” he told the GNA.
DCOP Tuffour said although the police got wind of the anomaly, they were unable to act because they were not mandated to determine the age of voters.
The EC boss however put the blame squarely at the doorstep of the political parties and some parents for masterminding the registration of minors and said as the situation was, the EC could not do anything about the situation unless compelled by a court.
“I can’t put a figure to the number of registrants we suspect to be minors but I can tell you that they are plenty. It is a national problem. We cannot challenge them now because they went through the registration exercise unchallenged,” he said.
Addressing journalists at a dialogue organized by the Editor’s Forum, Ghana, chaired by Ms Ajoa Yeboah-Afari, in collaboration with the EC to throw more light on the commission’s preparation for the December 7 contest, Dr. Afari-Gyan made it clear that the stages for challenging minors were over.
He said when they met the political parties, they confirmed that the photographs on the register were indeed minors’ and he urged them to use their campaigns to dissuade them from voting.
He noted that in the past, the law permitted the EC to use its discretion to delete such names from the system through what he called ‘justifiable cause’ but with the new law, the commission was compelled to seek a court order by using what he called ‘judicial cause’ to delete them.
Asked who should initiate the court process, Dr. Afari-Gyan said, “We need evidence to prove that they are minors before we can proceed to court” but added, “It is only when they voluntarily don’t go to vote that we can prevent minors from voting.”
He appealed to parents not to allow their children who were not eligible for the process but had already registered to take part because the commission had alerted the security agencies to arrest minors on election day.
“We have done what is humanly possible to rectify the anomalies in the register and we have a reasonably good register for the process.”
However, commenting on the news on social network sites, commentators said the EC should blame itself, instead of trying to shifting it on the political parties.
They said it was the EC that supervised the registration of minors, asking, “Who took the photos of the minors? Who wrote their names in the voters’ register? Who took their thumb prints? Who issued them the cards?”
Dr. Afari-Gyan was defensive when journalists wanted to know how they allowed minors onto the register.
“There are places that do not allow challenge,” he said, adding, “At one point, when one of our commissioners, Mr. Sarfo Kantanka, chanced on the registration of a minor and he tried to challenge, they told him to shut up if he did not want to get lost.”
14m Voter Population
Dr. Afari-Gyan further disclosed that the voter population was above 14 million even though when the provisional register was released, the EC had said the voter population stood at about 12 million.
Some political observers wondered how the figure could rise after the commission said it was cleaning it.
Dr. Afari-Gyan also said there would be 26,015 polling stations for the exercise.
He noted that the printing of the register was underway and the political parties were expected to receive their copies by Monday.
On the issue of proxy voting, Dr. Afari-Gyan said, “It is not as easy as people think”, adding, “It is very restricted to persons who due to national assignments would not be able to vote.”
He said per the EC’s estimation, they were printing 10 percent more of the ballot papers to ensure that there was no complaint of shortage on election day, adding, “If there is shortage then it means it is contrived.”
He added that he had ordered returning officers to release all ballot papers full, noting, “When you go to the polling station and there is shortage of ballot papers, you must be concerned because somebody might not be doing his/her work.”
He said the commission was giving all those who would handle the biometric machines and other related works ‘hands-on’ training, therefore he did not expect them to fail on the day.
Wild Allegations
He accused the political parties of making wild allegations against the EC but failing to back them with evidence, adding, “They go about claiming that in some areas, parties are recording figures high above the number of ballots cast but when you put them to strict proof they fumble.”
“Let me tell you, you can’t have a polling station recording figures that are more than the number of ballots cast. If that happens, we cancel the exercise,” he stressed.
Dr. Afari-Gyan said a biometric machine could determine the number of people that used the system and if the total number of ballots cast happened to be more than what had gone through the machine, the commission would have no option but to declare that process null and void.
He stated that the EC had agreed with the political parties that every polling centre should use the biometric machine, saying, “We have agreed that no machine, no vote. The machine uses battery and not electricity so there would be no problem.”
He said it was only at the polling station that a returning officer could do a re-count on the request of a candidate but the officer had the right to do a re-count after two attempts.
He explained that at the constituency centre, the EC re-collated but not re-counted, adding that only the courts could order recount at the constituency centre.
He advised the political parties to ensure that their agents, on election day, were well educated and dedicated for the process.
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