The final results of the 2010 Population and Housing Census are expected to be released on Monday, April 30, 2012, the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) has indicated.
Originally, the results were scheduled to be released on March 31, 2012 but some initial field challenges which impacted negatively on the data collection process have necessitated the rescheduling of the date for the release of the results.
The acting Government Statistician, Dr Philomena Nyarko, who made this known to the DAILY GRAPHIC in Accra Tuesday, dismissed allegations that the release of the census results was being delayed to favour certain political interests.
�I�m not worried at all because technically I know there is nothing we can do with where we are now,� she said.
Some interest groups, including the Danquah Institute (DI), have mounted pressure on the GSS to release the census results early.
In a statement issued a couple of days ago, the DI asked the government to allow the results of the census to be released and in time for the 2012 new voters registration exercise.
�The delay is unusual and unprecedented. Moreover, no credible explanation has so far been offered by the government for this undue delay. In 2000, the final census results of that year were declared in that same year, how much more today, with all the advances in ICT over the last decade,� it said.
Responding to some of the concerns expressed by the DI, Dr Nyarko wondered how anyone, including herself, could manipulate figures when the census data were not ready yet.
�I can�t even have access to it because the form in which it is, I can�t use it,� she maintained, adding that the GSS was an independent institution that did not allow interference from external quarters.
Dr Nyarko disagreed with suggestions that the release of the census results had delayed unduly, explaining that generally it took two years (24 months) to announce census results.
Given the fact that the 2010 Population and Housing Census was held in September 2010, releasing the results even in April 2012 would be within a period of one-and-a-half years (18 months), which is far below the general two-year time frame, she submitted.
�We have done extremely well. So I don�t understand why people are pressurising us,� she said.
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