The Electoral Commission (EC) has presented soft copies of the final certified voters register for the December 7, 2024 presidential and parliamentary elections to political parties and independent candidates participating in the polls.
The register contains the Name Reference List, which is a photo register with eligible voters’ information; the Exceptions List of individuals with exceptions to the voting rules; the Confidence List; Absent Voter List; and the Transfer Voter List.
The rest are the Proxy List of voters registered for proxy voting and the Manual Verification List of individuals requiring manual verification due to errors in the data capturing process.
Presentation
The Information Technology (IT) Consultant to the EC, Dr Yaw Ofori Adjei, in a presentation at the EC Head Office in Accra yesterday said the soft copy of the register contained all the voters register structured into all the 16 regions and constituencies across the country.
He emphasised that the manual verification list included individuals with valid voter ID cards and forms 1A and 1C, but who were not captured in the database due to transaction errors.
Dr Ofori Adjei said the Commission had structured the PDF files for easy tracking, with regions and police departments listed in alphabetical order, and added that special police registers would be created for constituencies with unique voting requirements.
News conference
Speaking at a news conference to hand over the certified copies of the 2024 voters register to the political parties, the Chairperson of the EC, Jean Mensa, described the final voters register as robust with no concerns or issues concerning the register raised by representatives of political parties.
She said although it provided an opportunity for parties to furnish the EC with any anomalies identified in the register, none of the parties did so, sending an indication that all parties were satisfied with the register.
She thanked the political parties and representatives of presidential candidates for the 2024 election, as well as the Ghanaian public for believing in the EC.
“Your support, your help, and your advice have contributed to the credible register that we have before us today. I use this opportunity to assure you of the Commission’s commitment to conducting free, fair, transparent and peaceful elections on December 7, 2024,” the EC Chairperson said.
Political parties
The Director of Research and Elections of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP), Evans Nimako, also stated: “We have received this, and we hope that from the last engagement of October 15, 2024, the revised register was 18,772,251”.
He said while it was not yet known what the figures on the final certified registered was, “I’m happy that we are going to be given a copy of the summary you have so that if there are any concerns, we will raise them, even though this is supposed to be the certified register”.
“The NPP, I must say, is committed to peace before, during, and after the December 7 general election,” he said.
NDC, M4C
The Deputy Director of Elections and IT of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Dr Rashid Tanko Computer, and Nana Yaw Sarpong, a representative of independent candidate, John Alan Kyerematen, requested the summaries of the certified voters register for their assessment.
This, they said, was to enable them to know the total breakdown of the total number of registered voters and other relevant data.
The EC, after listening to the concerns, assured the political parties that it would make summaries of the voters register available to them.