Press Release
October 27, 2011
NANA ADDO INSISTS ON BIOMETRIC VOTER VERIFICATION, DESPITE EC’S
RELUCTANCE
The 2012 Presidential Candidate of the New Patriotic Party, Nana
Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has repeated his party’s call to the
Electoral Commission to include in the biometric voter register
system an electronic verification mechanism at every polling
station.
According to the leader of Ghana’s biggest opposition party,
“What the Ghanaian people are seeking to guard against” in the
2012 general elections and beyond, “is the phenomenon of
multiple registrations and ultimately multiple voting because
the deep mischief that has to be cured if there is to be
constant support for the electoral process in
Ghana is to prevent multiple
voting.”
Speaking in Berlin,
Germany, on the same day that Dr
Afari Gyan was saying in Accra that
biometric verification was not a priority on the EC’s agenda,
the NPP flagbearer told his international audience that “Ghana
has reached the stage where our voters’ register must be
verified electronically and that is the main argument before our
EC today.”
To Nana Akufo-Addo, a system that automatically tackles the
issue of multiple voting, and not just multiple registration,
would serve as a significant enhancement to the process of
cementing Ghana’s critical role as a role model for democracy
and elections in Africa.
Nana Addo, who was addressing the
“Africa Conference 2011” as the keynote speaker, made the case
that “the stakes for power in Ghana have been heightened by the
discovery of oil in substantial quantities and the leader who
will emerge out of next year’s elections will have a much bigger
basket with which to address the problems of the nation and with
this rise in the stakes, it is absolutely critical that the
right architecture for our elections are fully established for a
free, fair and transparent election so that the results will be
readily acceptable.”
He added, “We must do everything to avoid a crisis or anything
of the sort in Ghana and therefore we must complete all the
necessary processes required to conduct a modern, free, fair and
transparent election acceptable to all.
“The Ghanaian
people,” Nana Addo insisted, “are demanding a voter register
that covers all eligible citizens and also prevents
the entry of ineligible persons on the voters’ list.”
In ensuring this, “We want to see our Electoral Commission
delivering an accurate and credible electoral register and voter
ID cards in time for the election calendar and for the processes
and procedures leading to election day and the declaration of
results to be free, fair and transparent so as to command the
understanding and acceptance of all major stakeholders,” he
stressed.
Nana Addo’s message to the EC and all major stakeholders is
this: “It is critical that we have a biometric register that can
be verified electronically because the countries that have gone
the way of biometric registration without biometric verification
have found themselves in great problems,” he stated, citing Cote
d’Ivoire.
The post-election violence in that country earlier this year, he
argued, could probably have been avoided if there was a similar
verification mechanism of the voter at the polling station and
Ghana cannot afford not to take useful lessons from that
negative experience from its next door neighbour.
He called on the international community to take a strong
interest in the matter because by continuing to help Ghana to
get it right with its delections, the world would be helping
democracy to make progress in Africa.
The NPP flagbearer spoke on the theme: “Africa’s Role Model?
Democracy and Elections in Ghana”.
On Wednesday, Nana Addo, who was
still in Germany, spoke
to Citi FM’s Shamima
Muslim and insisted that, in spite of the EC’s apparent
reluctance to go the full way with biometric verification, the
NPP would continue to engage the EC to persuade the Commission
to appreciate the wisdom in the party’s position.
He called on “all well-meaning Ghanaians” to support the
campaign for biometric verification system at the polling
station.
He travelled Monday to Berlin with
the NPP National Chairman, Jake Obestebi-Lamptey, General
Secretary, Kwadwo Owusu-Afriyie, Director of International
Affairs, Charles Wiredu, and his Press Secretary, Herbert Krapa.
