The Electoral Commission (EC) has stated that it is in no position to rig the 2024 General Election in favour of any political party.
The Commission said elections are won or lost at the polling station and “not at the EC’s headquarters.”
Addressing a press conference in Accra on Friday, Mr Samuel Tettey Deputy EC Chair in charge of Operations, said the transparent nature of the electoral processes from registration to collation and declaration of results makes it impossible for the Commission to determine the outcome of elections.
The Commission was responding to allegations by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) at a press conference in Accra on Thursday.
Mr Tettey said there was no loophole in the electoral process that could enable the Commission to rig the elections in favour of any party or candidate.
He said political parties had the will to put in systems to collate their figures from across the over 38,000 polling stations and match it with the figures of the Commission at the close of polls.
“…if a political party has participated in all the above processes and has been able to collate results from all the 38,622 polling stations, their results should match the final results that the Electoral Commission would eventually declare,” Mr Tettey said.
“Elections are won or lost at the polling station, and not at the Head Office of the Electoral Commission. Parties should train their Agents well to observe the process and not blame the EC for the outcome of the elections,” he added.
Responding to concerns about the recruitment of Returning and Deputy Returning Officers for the ongoing voters’ registration exercise, the Commission said the process was open, fair, and transparent.
Mr Tettey said following the advertisement of the positions in the dailies, some 20,561 persons applied, adding that an in-house committee shortlisted the applicants.
“…all successful applicants at the interview have no less than 8 years working experience with the Commission as Temporary Election Officials,” he said.
Mr Tetteh said that all political parties received the list of registration officials during Regional IPAC (RIPAC) and District IPAC (DIPAC) meetings “several days before the commencement of the registration exercise.”
The EC acknowledged the challenges experienced in the first two days of the registration exercise and said that the challenges had been resolved since the third day.
The Commission said as of the ninth day of the registration exercise, a total of 391, 111 new voters had been added to the electoral roll.
Responding to other issues, Mr Tettey said the EC played no role in disenfranchising the people of Santrokofi, Apkafu, Lolobi, and Lipke (SALL) /Guan District in taking part in the 2020 Parliamentary elections.
“Given that the Legislative Instrument that created the Guan District came into force on 9th November 2020, the same day Parliament went on recess, and with Parliament only returning from recess on 14th December 2020 after the general elections, the Constitutional Instrument creating the Guan Constituency could not be laid before Parliament, and in time for it to mature into law before the parliamentary election on 7th December 2020,” the Commission explained.
GNA
KAS
17 May 2024
Caption: Pictures attached
