The Electoral Commission (EC) of Ghana has announced that its intended exercise to remove multiple names from the voter’s register shall be done across the length and breadth of the county, especially, in areas where the anomalies are detected.
According to the Commission, it has no plan to remove names of suspected cases of multiple entries from only one region as is being speculated by some political parties.
“We wish to assure the nation that wherever multiple registrations are detected, due process outlined and agreed with stakeholders would be applied”, a statement signed and released in Accra, Tuesday, by the Acting Director, Public Affairs of the EC, Christian Owusu-Parry in part read.
The EC has in recent comes under severe pressure from the political parties to publish the list of multiple registration.
According to the Commission, it will continue to use the established process of de-duplication to remove multiple names towards ensuring a cleaner register ahead of elections 2016.
Below is the full statement:
PRESS STATEMENT….. REMOVAL OF CASES OF MULTIPLE REGISTRATIONS FROM THE VOTERS REGISTER
Following calls by political parties for the publication of the list of multiple registrations, the Commission wishes to clarify the process of de-duplication after the 2014 limited registration of voters.
The following numbers of voters were registered and cases of multiple registrations per region were recorded;
The Commission wishes to stress that it will continue to use the established process of de-duplication to remove multiple names towards ensuring a cleaner register ahead of elections 2016.
The adjudication process entails;
Matching of fingerprints by AFIS (Automatic Fingerprint Identification System), a software which detects and brings out multiple registrations, examination of facial and personal data of all applicants with multiple registrations by officers of the Commission, confirmation or rejection of each case and the decision thereon by adjudication supervisors of the Commission, printing out of adjudication reports, review of reports by the Adjudication Review Committee made up of Head Office Directors of the Commission, selected senior staff of the head office, political party representatives and representatives of selected Civil Society Organisations, to determine all cases of suspected multiple entries, and submission of adjudication review committee report to the Chair of the Commission for authentication and approval.
Following the conclusion of adjudication, names approved are either move from the Exceptions List and added to the register, or deleted.
The Commission wishes to state that it has no plan to remove names of suspected cases of multiple entries from only one region. We wish to assure the nation that wherever multiple registrations are detected, due process as outlined above and agreed with stakeholders would be applied.
SIGNED: