Anchoring Democracy Advocacy Movement-Ghana (ADAM-GH) in a press conference at Accra has expose the fraud by the Electoral Commission with the ongoing voters registration.
READ THE FULL STATEMENT BELOW:
Good morning ladies and gentlemen of the press, ADAM-GH has invited you here this morning to share with you some startling revelations following our monitoring of the ongoing registration exercise nationwide with specific emphasis of the Ashanti Region.
Anchoring Democracy Advocacy Movement-Ghana (ADAM-GH) is a civil society organization that anchors proper democratic principles, protect Ghana’s democracy, the rule of law, fight corruption and to ensure peace and security of the country.
Ladies and Gentlemen, ADAM-GH has made a number of observation that requires urgent public attention, the restoration of which will go a long way to inspire public confidence in the ongoing exercise and deliver a credible Presidential and Parliamentary Elections in December, 2020.
These observations include the following:
First and foremost, the incidence of duplication of serial numbers was on the ascendancy where multiple applicants had same serial number after registration, a situation that invalidates the card of the registrant which woefully affect public confidence in the electoral registration system.
Other anomalies we observed included the absence of the much touted “Facial Recognition Feature” with the current Biometric Verification Device which Ghanaians were made to believe by the Electorate Commission has a unique ability to detect and reject potential double registrants thereby justifying the call for a new register.
Ladies and gentlemen of the press, can anyone of you here confirm the existence of such device when you went to register? What dishonesty! Yet it formed part of the whopping a One Hundred and Fifty Million Dollars ($150,000,000.00) that was budgeted for the registration exercise.
Another worrying phenomenon in the ongoing exercise is the non-sequential of serial numbers in the final Voter Identification Card administered to registrants. In the space of 1 to 100 registrant you have registration numbers jumping back and forth in no sequential order a situation that is Alien to a typical robust Biometric Verification Device.
We would have wanted to be charitable to flow with the words of the Electoral Commissions, description of these happenings as mere anomalies but considering the magnitude of its occurrences, particularly on the back of the widespread condemnation of the old voter register that has produced two (2) Ghanaian Presidents, recent Assembly Members and subsequently created six (6) new regions without any hitch, we are left with no other conclusion to this unfortunate saga than to rather describe it as a Super Incompetently Fraudulent.
Ladies and gentlemen of the press, could there be any more irresponsibly and incompetently fraudulent national exercise than what Madam Jane Adukwei Mensah and Bossman Asare are currently superintending? After all the assurances they have given Ghanaians about the fairness and transparency prior to the ongoing registration exercise, we are now confronted with padded figures in no less a region other than the stronghold of the ruling party – Ashanti Region.
The two major political parties as well as the minor ones and civil society organizations including our good selves ADAM-GH have all recorded same figures in almost all the constituencies we have monitored in the Ashanti Region during the first phase of the registration exercise with only the Electoral Commission Head Office recording significantly different figures and these are as follows:
The exercise is full of manipulations and fraught with fraud from the Head of the Electoral commission. There are clear indications that if the EC continue to continue with this fraudulent register the commission is likely to throw this country in chaos. We have observed few worrisome happenings in the on-going process that we wish to communicate to Ghanaians to know why this register cannot be credible for December 2020 General Elections.
We have observed that some of the registration figures put out by the Commission during the first phase was significantly different from what our monitors on the ground collated. ADAM GH wishes to bring a few of these discrepancies which we term as fraud on the part of Electoral Commission Head office headed by Jean Adukwei Mensah.
The following worrisome situations have been recorded across the country:
Non sequential of serial numbers.
The tables above shows an addition of 29,940 added to the number of registrants in Offinso North Constituency, Juaben Constituency, Afigya Kwabre North Constituency and Afigya Sekyere East Constituency respectively.
The Electoral Commission response which they said, the figures were provisional and that they received the figures through phone calls whilst waiting for the print out to be submitted to them at the Head office Has exposed the Electoral Commissions fraudulent intent in this registration exercise.
An issue of grave concern to ADAM GH is the fact that the daily printout sheets, required to be printed for polling agents at the end of each registration day before and after are not printed at most polling stations. This is depriving the polling agents of important information for reporting and proper monitoring of the registration exercise.
As we speak stakeholders who are Political parties do not know the number of new BVR equipment that have been deployed nationwide and when the remaining would arrive for deployment.
Political parties do not know how many old BVR equipment were also upgraded and added to the exercise.
Political parties do not know the current number of Mobile Units per District.
The EC did not give any clarifications on the changed gazetted registration centres and schedules for registration to its stakeholders. ADAM-GH want to know the legal basis for the Mobile Unit registrations and registration centres at the Commission’s District Offices which were not gazetted.
How can the Political Parties deploy their Registration Agents to monitor the registration process through the mobile registration exercise?
Have you imagined a scenario where election results from polling stations are confirmed by party agents and also both the District and the Regional Electoral Commission Officers only for the Head Office of the Electoral Commission headed by Madam Jane Mensah and Bossman Asare to come out with figures other than what had been transmitted from the polling stations and same confirmed by party agents, the District and Regional Electoral Commission Officers? Your guess is as good as mine!
In view of the above mentioned worrisome situations about the ongoing voters registration Exercise, it is undeniably a fact that, this current register under compilation is fraught with fraud and cannot be credible enough to be used for the December 2020 General Elections.
SIGNED
AZUBILA SALAM EMMANUEL
(EXECUTIVE SECRETARY OF ADAM GH)
CONTACT:
APPROVED BY
IBRAHIM M. ADAMS
(DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS ADAM GH).
Source: Thepressradio.com/Ghana/ Adwenepahene Kofi Mensah
