‘Current exhibition won’t meet targets’

An independent presidential candidate in the 2012 election, Mr Jacob Osei Yeboah, has described the ongoing nationwide voter register exhibition exercise as not foolproof enough to allow the Electoral Commission (EC) to remove the dead, minors and foreigners from the Biometric Voters Register (BVR).

According to Mr Yeboah, popularly referred to as JOY, since the exercise was not foolproof to meet set targets, the EC was contradicting itself both legally and operationally with the Biometric Voters Devices (BVD) used in the exhibition.

Mr Yeboah, who was speaking to the Daily Graphic after visiting some centres, said: “A credible BVR data is built when the input undergoes subjective (voter physical interactions) biometric process to ensure the voter’s specification meets the 1992 Constitutional requirement of a Ghanaian Voter (Art. 42) and addresses the real need of casting valid votes by the living voter and not the dead,” he stated.

Article 42 states that Every citizen of Ghana of 18 years or above and of sound mind has the right to vote and is entitled to be registered as a voter for the purposes of public elections and referenda.

In his view, “The subjective process ensures that the EC builds the right BVR. This process is technically called Validation by Computer Technical Experts,” he said.

He therefore opined that the process was “illegal” and one that would cause financial loss to the nation.

Background

The EC, on July 18 this year, opened the voters register for exhibition as well as offered opportunity to people whose names were deleted from the electoral roll because they used the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) cards to re-register.

The exercise will also generally afford Ghanaian voters the opportunity to verify their names and effect corrections where needed.

According to the EC, the 21 days exercise would also pave way for the removal of deceased registered voters, removal of multiple registrations (with the help of the AFIS software), removal of alleged minors and non-Ghanaians based on the production of evidence.

The commission said it would use the Biometric Verification devices during the exhibition period for verification of registered voters.

JOY’s position

“Ghanaians are looking for nothing but a credible BVR, isn't it? Yes it is. Credible BVR connotes BVR that Ghanaian voters can believe or trust. In other words BVR that Ghanaians can think that it is true, correct or real. BVR that Ghanaians can have confidence in its honesty, goodness or safety to use for the 2016 election,” he argued.

Earlier, in a letter to the EC dated June 14 this year and signed by his lawyer, Mr Peter Kweku Nti, the former presidential candidate called on the EC to take all the necessary steps to carry out the Supreme Court order which called for a credible voters register.

Mr Yeboah threatened to drag the EC to court if it failed to do so.