238,000 Overseas Voters Missing In EC Register

Details

Category: Elections & Governance

Created on Saturday, 16 February 2013 00:00

Hits: 3224

238,000 Overseas Voters Missing In EC Register

It has emerged that the total number of registered voters abroad captured in the Biometric Voters Register (BVR) of the Electoral Commission (EC) for the 2012 elections was 2,883 and not the over 241,000 as earlier claimed.

This included diplomatic staff serving in Ghanaian missions abroad, students on Ghana government scholarships, Ghanaians serving with international bodies as well as Ghana service personnel returning from international peacekeeping duties.

The total number of people registered abroad was contained in the full list presented by the EC to the Supreme Court Registry on Tuesday as part of the processes in a petition filed by three New Patriotic Party (NPP) leaders including the party’s December 2012 presidential candidate, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, challenging the commission’s declaration of John Dramani Mahama as President.

The other petitioners are Nana Addo’s running mate, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, and the party chairman, Jake Otanka Obetsebi-Lamptey.

The Breakdown

In the document, the EC put the number of service personnel returning from international peacekeeping duties at 2178 while the total number of diplomatic staff serving abroad as well as students on government scholarships and Ghanaians serving with international bodies were 705.

This brought the total number to 2,883, leaving the EC to fish for the missing 238,117.

For service personnel returning from international peacekeeping duties, the EC said it registered 120 in the Volta Region, 92 in Brong Ahafo, 210 in Northern Region, 216 in Western Region, 106 in Ashanti Region and 1,434 in the Greater Accra.

The breakdown of diplomatic staff serving abroad, students on Ghana government scholarships, Ghanaians serving with international bodies registered were as follows: London, 49; The Hague, 27; Moscow, 34; Berlin, 27; Geneva, 26; Rome, 16; Spain, three (all in Europe); Cuba, 15; Washington DC, 23; New York, 55; Brazil, 13 (The Americas).

The rest were China, 20; Seoul, 22; India, 17; Dubai, 19; Malaysia, 13 (Asia), Addis Ababa, 36; Pretoria, 43 (East & South Africa); Rabat, 45; Algiers, 28; Cairo, 20 (North Africa); Monrovia, 27, Dakar, 21; Abidjan, 13; Bamako, 11; Abuja, 30 and Lome, 7 (West Africa).

The EC’s submission was in response to an order for interrogatories issued by the Supreme Court in respect of the petitioners’ request to get the commission to furnish them with the documents on the people registered overseas.

The petitioners said the application for interrogatories was filed because of the answer given by the EC after the petition had been filed.

The EC, in answer to the petition, had submitted that over 200,000 votes from categories of voters registered abroad were included in the final results of the election.

A simple calculation on the list of voters registered abroad showed that the total number submitted by the EC was 2,883, whereas the commission in response to the petition quoted that over 241,000 people were registered abroad.

The 241,000 Argument

The issue of 241,000 came about as a result of the total number of registered voters quoted by EC Chairman Dr. Kwadwo Afari-Gyan when he declared the results of the presidential election on December 9, 2012.

On that day, he said that 14,158,890 was the total number of registered voters, with 11,246,982 valid votes cast at a 79.43 turnout, even though the petitioners averred that the commission had announced 13, 917,366 as the total number of registered voters prior to the election.

The petitioners, in their petition filed on December 28, raised the discrepancy in the total number of registered voters announced by the EC, and the commission, in its answer filed on January 7, 2013, said that the discrepancy in figures rather affected voter turnout and not the ballots obtained by each candidate.

EC’s Answer

The affidavit sworn to by Kwadwo Sarfo-Kantanka, a deputy Commissioner of EC, averred that the total number of registered voters, copies of which were forwarded to the parties, was 14,031,680 and added that figure14,158,890 used to declare the results was a ‘genuine’ error but that had no bearing on the results declared.

The commission said it rather affected the voter turnout by increasing it to 80.15 percent from79.43 percent and not the actual results released.

Not satisfied with the explanation, the petitioners asked the court to order the commission to submit the list of diplomatic staff serving abroad, students on Ghana government scholarships, Ghanaians serving with international bodies as well as Ghana service personnel returning from international peacekeeping duties, with their bio-data as captured in the register.

The figures submitted was far lower than the figures the commission included in the declaration of the results of the general election.

The details submitted to the court included names, sex, ages of the voters as well as location registered and the polling station numbers; but there were no voters ID numbers.

Another request from the petitioners for the EC to explain why it failed to notify the petitioners’ party about the registration abroad, so it could send representatives to monitor the process, was met with an aggressive answer.

“The 2nd respondent is not obliged by law to allow political party representatives to be present during registration exercise but done so, in practice, as a courtesy and to enhance transparency. It was open to the political parties to have their representatives present at the registration locations if they had so wished,” the EC charged.

EC Responds To Interrogatories

Amadu Sulley, EC deputy Chairman in charge of Finance and Administration who deposed to the affidavit responding to the interrogatories, averred that before the abroad registration, it had given the NPP and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) the list of foreign service personnel, their dependents, students on Ghana government scholarships abroad and Ghanaians working with international organizations as well as their locations and proposed dates of registration.

“Honourable Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh (NPP) and Mr George Lawson (NDC) collected the material on behalf of their political parties in the middle of September, 2012,” the EC declared, adding that, “no voting took place outside Ghana.”

He also said that “Further directives received from the Court are yet to be incorporated into the Register, as will the recent registrations effected in the Kassena-Nankana District following the order of the High Court.”

He averred that if that is done, “this will alter the total number of registered voters. The Voters Register is dynamic, not static, particularly in this era of continuous registration as required by Regulation 9 of (C.I. 72).”

Explaining how the voter population increased from 13, 917,366 to 14,158,890 on the day of the declaration, the EC said, “The said entries also included insertions, at 400 registration centres and the Commission’s District Offices, of the names of persons who claimed to have voter ID cards but had been inadvertently omitted, as well as data recovered from damaged registration machines and back-up pen drives.”

The EC insisted that once the petitioners did not mention that the 14,158,890 registered voters represented the raw entries in the registration database, that ‘omission’ has resulted in the creation of ‘distortions’.

Mahama Factor

In President Mahama’s answer to the petition, he endorsed the EC’s explanation that the 13, 917,366 figure given to the political parties was provisional.

“The 1st respondent states that to the best of his knowledge and belief, the figure of 13, 917,366 announced by the 2nd respondent was clearly provisional,” Elvis Afriyie Ankrah, who was the President’s campaign coordinator, averred on his behalf.

“At the time of the announcement, 2nd respondent had not registered prisoners and other voters including those in the diplomatic missions abroad and on peacekeeping missions, and had also not done mop up exercise that it undertook subsequently,” he said.

“The suggestion by petitioners that there were some veiled reasons for the difference between 13, 917,366 and the final number of registered voters is without basis and smacks of utmost bad faith,” he added.

Source: Daily Guide/Ghana

No comments

Okyehene Should Advise Nana Addo – NDC Group

Details

Category: Politics

Created on Friday, 15 February 2013 00:00

Hits: 3059

Okyehene Should Advise Nana Addo – NDC Group

The Eastern Regional Branch of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) have accused the Okyehene, Osagyefo Amoatia Ofori Panin of being biased in his call on President John Mahama to eschew politics of insults and accept the ruling of the Supreme Court on the New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) election petition.

According to the group the Okeyehene should have first called the flagbearer of the NPP, Nana Akufo-Addo to order before making the same request of the President.

The Eastern Regional Secretary of the NDC, Matthew Doe stated that the Okeyehene’s statement to President Mahama “has its own legal connotations for whoever the contending parties but we also know that the Presidency is not the only contending party. We have never heard him call his own son [Nana Addo] who is from Kyebi to give him a similar piece of advice.”

But the Lawyer for the Okyehene, Boateng Acheampong responded that whatever submissions the Okyehene made to President Mahama “was not his personal representations but things that he has discussed with Nananom in the Eastern Region and presented them.”

He maintained that the deductions by the NDC group are wrong as the Okyehene’s submissions were not politically motivated.

Lawyer Acheampong described the statements by the Eastern Regional NDC as “inflammatory statements, they have the potential to expose the Okyehene to public hatred because you know this matter has the potential of dividing Ghana.”

Source: citifmonline.com

No comments

Mahama Invited Chiefs

Details

Category: Politics

Created on Saturday, 16 February 2013 00:00

Hits: 3206

Mahama Invited Chiefs

Details of the meeting between President John Mahama and the Eastern Regional House of Chiefs have started emerging, days after it generated a heated debate.

Hours after the said meeting which was held at the new seat of government, the Flagstaff House, executives of the Eastern regional branch of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) issued a statement in which they described the visit by the traditional rulers as ‘unwarranted’ and politically motivated.

An appeal by the chiefs who were led by Okyenhene, Osagyefuo Amoatia Ofori Panin, for President Mahama to do well to accept the outcome of a petition before the Supreme Court seeking to invalidate his election, was equally rubbished by the NDC chieftains.

DAILY GUIDE however stumbled on information that indicated that the various regional houses of chiefs were actually invited to the Presidency to pay homage to the President in order to give him legitimacy in the face of a challenge to his presidency in court.

A letter inviting the chiefs were said to have been dispatched through the various regional ministers with a message that “you are invited to pay a courtesy call on His Excellency the President”.

DAILY GUIDE learnt that very soon, other institutions and professional bodies would be line up to congratulate the president as the chiefs had been made to do.

It was the same message received by the Eastern Regional House of Chiefs, of which the Okyenhene is the President.

The invitation letters requesting the chiefs to meet the President stated the dates and times for the meeting.

What was still not clear was why it would take the President to invite the chiefs to the presidency just to congratulate him, since there was no stated reason for the invitation.

Some, including political analysts, had suggested that the move could be part of a scheme by the President and his handlers to get the chiefs and other bodies and institutions to go and congratulate him on his victory in a bid to legitimize his presidency, in spite of the dispute over the elections.

Responding to queries from DAILY GUIDE, lawyer for the Okyenhene, Kwame Acheampong Boateng said, “Information I gathered was that they were invited; so they didn’t go there on their own volition”.

He struggled to put up a genuine reason for which the traditional rulers were invited to the presidency, claiming that “during the election, the politicians went round…went to all the chiefs, sought their permission to do whatever it is to get the votes of their people.

So eventually, if anybody emerges a winner out of the contest, tradition demands that they the chiefs will also congratulate him.”

Lawyer Boateng himself appreciated the fact that this could lead to probing questions since he asked rhetorically, “So everybody will ask so why will they be invited?”

“Me, I specifically asked this question and the answer I got was that they were invited to come and meet the President,” he said.

Though he admitted “it’s an issue”, the Okyenhene’s lawyer was quick to add that “the fact of the matter is that they didn’t just get up to go there; they were invited by the presidency to come and speak to the President as to what they have in mind.”

Source: Daily Guide/Ghana

No comments

IPAC Has No Legal Backing - Deputy EC Chairman

Details

Category: Politics

Created on Friday, 15 February 2013 00:00

Hits: 3004

IPAC Has No Legal Backing - Deputy EC Chairman

A deputy Chairman of the Electoral Commission (EC), Mr Amadu Sulley, has stated that the Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC) has no legal backing.

He said the main function of IPAC was to deliberate, share ideas and advise on electoral matters.

According to him, the decisions of IPAC were not binding on the EC but the Commission took the IPAC's deliberations seriously, since they could be a collective search for a transparent electoral system.

Mr Sulley said this during a four-day meeting between Ugandan political parties with representatives in parliament and their Ghanaian counterparts in Accra.

The programme, which was on the theme: "The role of Ghanaian Political Parties in Shaping and Influencing the National Agenda - Lessons from Ghana," was under the sponsorship of the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) and the Netherlands Institute of Multi-Party Democracy.

Mr Sulley said whenever there was an issue and a consensus emerged from the dialogue and it was reasonable, practicable and lawful the EC gave it the serious consideration it deserved.

He said the IPAC was made up of representatives of all registered political parties and the EC and it was structured in such a way that there were Regional Inter-Party Advisory Committees (RIPAC) and District Inter-Party Advisory Committees (DIPAC).

Mr Sulley said the regional and district committees were made up of the registered political parties in the regions and the districts with all their meetings being chaired by the EC officers.

He said the meetings of IPAC in an election year were normally held once every month at the offices of the EC and the meetings were attended by representatives of all the registered political parties.

Mr Sulley said IPAC meetings were chaired by the chairman of the EC and in his absence, his position was taken by one of the two deputies.

A visiting Senior Fellow of the IEA, Brigadier General Francis A. Agyemfra (Retd), said the institute had contributed greatly to qualitatively improve the nature of Ghana's democracy and this had led to stability.

He said this stability was traceable to healthy inter-party relations developed through the medium of the Institute of Economic Affairs/Netherlands Institute of Multi-Party Democracy (IEA/NIMD), Ghana Political Parties Programme and the IPAC, which had led to a peaceful coexistence among people of diverse ethnic and religious beliefs and backgrounds.

Brigadier General Agyemfra said Ghana had now found a vehicle for building the necessary institutional capacity, inter-party engagement and the needed personal network that would enable her to consign past rancour, bitterness, divisiveness, suspicion, hatred and acrimony, as well as extreme partisanship, to the dustbin of history.

He said political parties were increasingly realizing that neither a single party nor a single government could do it almost alone.

"Therefore, whatever their party affiliation, whatever the colour of their party symbol and whatever their ideology, they have a collective responsibility to work together in the national interest in raising the standard of living and quality of life of all Ghanaians.

"When Ghana prospers, we all prosper," he said.

Source: GNA

No comments