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Ghana Inches towards electronic voting as the country confers on the subject early next year under the auspices of the Danquah Institute, in collaboration with civil society groups and political parties. The announcement by Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko, Executive Director of the Danquah Institute during a press conference in Accra, coincided with the one year anniversary of the country�s last presidential election. Making a case for this advanced system of voting, he said it is an efficient means of obviating what he described as the type of electoral breakdown which nearly occurred in Ghana during the last polls.The title of the statement he read in the presence of Mr. Mike Oquaye Jnr, Nana Asante Bediatu and others - Ghana�s Democracy Is Not There Yet, E-Voting May Get Us There - sums up the concerns of a section of Ghanaians on the current module. Making a case for Electronic Voting, he quoted Russia�s Joseph Stalin when the one-time world leader said � It�s not he who casts the votes that matters, but he who counts the votes � as he argued in favour of this system in the Ghanaian context.Ghana, he noted, got close to the kind of election breakdown and violence seen in Kenya and Zimbabwe. Yesterday, he observed, marked a year since Ghanaians went to the polls, adding that, �In looking back we must also look ahead and provide the attention, do what is required and seek the support we need to ensure that our 2012 elections do not again bring us perilously close to the brink of violence�. Without significant improvements to the credibility of Ghana�s electoral process he noted, �December 2012 could potentially turn Ghana into a war zone�.The Danquah Institute, he noted, is convinced that there is a strong case for a biometric-based credentialising solution to Ghana�s Voter Register Project, recalling how the Institute, shortly after the 2008 polls, advocated for the adoption of e-voting. He however said that the foregone was followed by the Electoral Commissioner, Afari Gyan�s position that �EC is considering biometric registration of voters, but as for biometric voting, I don�t think the country is ready for it. If we do, I believe some people will start asking whether the Castle has not programmed the machines with some figures to their advantage�. Ironically however, the EC Chairman, he recalled, stated on Wednesday 18 March, 2009 that a completely new voter registration exercise will take place towards the 2012 polls, and this, he added, will use biometric registration to beat fraudsters who attempt to exploit the voting exercise. He noted that though there is talk of a biometric voter registration as possibly the way forward, it is being shot down because Ghanaians have not allowed for adequate intellectual resources to interrogate the modern approach seriously.The fundamental question to be addressed before 2012, he said, is how to protect the integrity of the elections from the point of voter registration to the moment of winner certification. The spectre of hundreds of young men wielding cutlasses in the vicinity of the EC headquarters last December should remind Ghanaians about how close the country got to the precipice, to drum home the Danquah Institute�s take on the E-Voting system. Ghana, he said, cannot wait till 2016 before adopting the E-Voting system, especially since the country�s democracy is not as secure as the world sees it. Mike Oquaye Jnr. mimicked Koku Anyidoho�s warning to the Electoral Commission not to tamper with the verdict prior to the release of the results. This was followed with the question about what happens if the NPP assumes a similar position as the NDC did in the run-up to the last polls. If Bangladesh was supported to go the E-Voting route, Ghana too can attract donor support in that direction. Ms. Oboshie Sai Cofie said the E-Voting system is a process worth adopting, notwithstanding the challenges as she likened it to a journey.On his part, Nana Asante Bediatu said the dangers which stared the country in the face during the last elections should not be papered out; adding that the picture being presented to the world is not as good as the reality of the issue. He underscored the magnitude of stealing the verdict to buttress the importance of an acceptable and scientific method.