The governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) has vowed to resist any attempt to have an external body conduct a forensic audit of the voters’ register.
According to the party, it is not right for the Electoral Commission (EC), which is enshrined in the constitution as an independent body, to be subjected to a forensic audit by an external institution.
Speaking on Peace FM on Tuesday, September 17, 2024, and monitored by GhanaWeb, the National Organiser of the NPP, Henry Nana Boakye, also known as Nana B, stated that the complaints filed by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) could easily be resolved and do not require external auditing of the voters’ register.
“If you look at our law, the EC is very independent; their independence is enshrined in the constitution, and you cannot undermine it. Again, whatever they do is guided by our constitution or the various Constitutional Instruments and amendments.
“If you look at the NDC demonstration and their grounds for it, they claim that after this year’s compilation of the voters’ register, they realized that there have been some transfers and dead persons on the electoral roll, and they have evidence of about 200,000 such persons. I read a statement from the EC indicating that when they met with the NDC, they asked the party to submit evidence of the discrepancies they claim to have identified so the commission could resolve the issue, but the NDC declined.
“The party is rather calling for a forensic audit by an independent body. This kind of complaint, which can be easily resolved, should not lead to an independent audit of a body that the constitution stipulates should be independent,” Nana B said.
He further stated that the NPP will vehemently oppose any such move.
“We in the NPP, when we were in opposition, once filed a similar complaint with the EC. We were asked to bring our evidence, and we sent it. The committee that presided over our concerns said there was no need for a new register to be compiled. Instead, an opportunity was given for a special voter exhibition exercise during which the names of dead people would be removed. That was what was done, and we used the same register for the general elections.
“We in the NPP will not allow any foreign interference. We will not allow any independent body to sit over a constitutionally created and well-established body. We will not allow the EC to let any foreign body conduct a forensic audit into its affairs. We will resist it fiercely. The demonstration that the NDC just held cannot compare to the action we will take,” Nana B added.
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