The opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) is demanding an immediate audit of the electoral materials for the Electoral Commission (EC) by private audit firm KPMG.
The calls from the largest opposition party come on the back of the EC’s confirmation that five laptops have been stolen after a routine check of its equipment.
Speaking on TV3’s Ghana Tonight programme on Wednesday, March 20, the deputy director of elections for the NDC, Tanko Rashid-Computer, said, “The EC is being economical with the truth,” indicating that “the laptop contains the software that captures all these details and so for somebody to take the laptop away means that the person has virtually taken the BVR away.”
He added, “That is what they are not telling the general public because the laptop is the most crucial gadget amongst the items that form the BVR.”
Rashid-Computer further indicated that the NDC has urged its MPs in Parliament to push for an external audit of the EC’s equipment to allay any fears of election malpractice going into the December 7 elections.
“That is why we are saying that as a political party, we are encouraging our minority to push for an external body like KPMG to come and audit the Electoral Commission. The systems that they are going to run. In 2012, the NPP asked for the same audit of electoral commission’s systems before we conducted the 2012 elections and this was granted,” he stated.
Background
On Tuesday, March 19, minority leader Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson indicated that the EC confirmed that the missing seven BVDs cannot be identified.
The minority leader has since called on the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service and other security agencies to “immediately issue a statement giving us the details of their investigations so far,” adding, “I am concerned and worried because that devices in the hands of an unknown person can compromise the future elections”.
But addressing the press in Accra on Wednesday, March 20, a Deputy Commissioner at the EC, Dr. Bossman Asare, said, “These allegations are not true. No BVD has been stolen. To set the records straight, the Commission recently undertook routine servicing of its Biometric Voter Registration (BVR) Kits.
“It was during this maintenance that we discovered the theft of five (5) laptops from the Biometric Voter Registration kits, not seven BVDs as erroneously stated.
“For clarification, Biometric Voter Registration Kits, which comprise a laptop, camera, scanner, and printer, are entirely separate from the Commission’s Registration Data Systems and are incapable of manipulating election outcomes as suggested,” said Dr. Asare.
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He continued, “These kits, though crucial for voter registration, require specific activation to function accordingly. Without such activation, they serve no purpose beyond their individual components as a laptop, camera, scanner, or printer.”
“What this means is that they are of no value beyond what they were manufactured to be,” Dr. Asare explained.