EC�s Limited Registration...Multiple Names Mar Register

Credible sources within the Electoral Commission (EC), have revealed that there were widespread multiple registration of names recorded in the voters� register in the recent voter registration exercise. The restricted exercise was to afford persons who had turned 18 years or those who could not register during the 2012 biometric registration process, the opportunity to get unto the voters� register. The EC had estimated based on the figures from the Ghana Statistical Service�s (GSS) 2010 population census that about 1million new entrants would be eligible to register. However, contrary to EC�s estimation, The National Forum (TNF) has gathered that several names appeared in multiples terms, ballooning the figures of the new register that will need efficient deduplication. Readers would recall that following the Supreme Court's decision on the Presidential Election Petition, several calls from political parties, civil society organizations and political pundits were made for an audit of the 2012 election register. Preceding this call was the deep rooted suspicion of a bloated register as a result of multiple registration. The EC had in June this, ruled out any audit of the current voters' register, saying there was no need to do so because it was not bloated. It said if people could bring legitimate issues and provide the commission with evidence that the register was bloated, then the auditing could be done. The EC Chairman Dr. Kwadwo Afari-Gyan made the comments during the maiden series of the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) Dialogue in Accra on the theme: "Beyond August 29 verdict: Lessons and path ahead." Reacting to calls by some civil society organisations and political parties for the auditing of the register to clean it before the EC could embark on the limited registration exercise; Dr Afari-Gyan said "I don't think the register is bloated, besides I don't know what auditing of the register means". According to him, auditing of the register was done prior to the last general elections where it was exhibited for people and political parties to verify and help eliminate double registration, minors, and dead voters from the register. Contrary to this assertion, there were cases of multiple registration during the hearing of the landmark presidential election petition by the highest court of the land. Since the Supreme Court verdict on August 29, 2014, the EC has not made any attempt to clean up the register. Multiple registration is an offence under Constitutional Instrument (C.I.72), which guides registration of voters. Regulation 27 of the C.I states in part that anybody who �registers as a voter more than once either at the same registration centre or at different registration centres, commits an offence and is liable on summary conviction to a fine of not more than five hundred penalty units or to a term of imprisonment of not more than two years or to both.� The EC has so far not been able to present a single offender for prosecution or even for the Police to make a case against those who violated this law in 2012 and bring them to justice at least to deter others from doing same. Fears are being expressed over the tendency for people to keep breaking the law and not be punished. �Human beings would naturally offend the law especially when they realise its enforcement is weak,� a prosecutor who pleaded anonymity pointed out, advising that �let the EC handover all offending cases to the state departments with prosecutorial power to do their job. All the EC is required to do is to provide the needed evidence to show committal of the offence and the rest would follow�. The dilemma that confronts the EC is what to do with all those who would be found culpable of this offence as it had decided to waive the possible prosecution of its temporary staff who violated an entrenched provision of the law. Presiding officers, which the EC indicated were temporary staff violated Article 49 of the constitution by failing to sign the results sheets in the 2012 elections as discovered during the famous 2012 presidential petition hearing. A political pundit has suggested that should the EC be bold to submit to the Ghana Police Service or the Attorney General�s department, the entire list of people suspected to have violated the electoral laws in one way or the other for possible prosecution, the Commission would be sending a very strong signal to erring citizens and further deter others from committing same or similar offences in future. �It is the attitude of the EC not to submit the list of offenders to the Prosecuting Authorities, in part, that has given rise to increases in electoral offences recorded after every election and registration process,� a prosecutor noted. He suggested that after the submission of this list to the prosecuting authority, tests could be run against other national data collected namely the National Health Insurance Scheme or the National Identification Authority to ascertain the consistency or otherwise of information provided by the same persons for clarity and sanitization of the national data system as well as rid the nation of duplicitous characters.