The Electoral Commission (EC) has suspended the Pusiga District Director of the commission over the recent illegal transfers of 38 voters in two constituencies in Tamale and Pusiga in the Northern Region, using the EC official’s credentials without the voters’ consent.
The Deputy Chairman of Corporate Service of the EC, Dr Bossman Eric Asare, who disclosed this in Accra yesterday, said the prime suspect had been arrested and granted bail pending further investigations.
He was speaking at a media briefing to throw more light on reports of illegal transfer of votes in two constituencies by officials of the EC.
He explained that there could be no voter transfer without the involvement of the District Director who is the seniormost official at the District level.
Mr Asare said a committee had been constituted by the EC to investigate how voters were transferred without the consent of the voters.
He indicated that following “a likeliness and human check” it was revealed that the 38 voters who were transferred were not physically present.
Quoting Regulation 22 Sub section of Constitutional Instrument (CI) 127, Dr Bossman stated that a registered voter might apply to the returning officer of the constituency where the voter was resident not less than 12 months in the constituency in which the voter was registered, for the name of the voter to be entered into the voter transferred list of a polling station.
He stated that further investigations also revealed that one Haruna Muniru who was alleged to have collected the voter’s identification cards of the victims was on bail following his arrest.
But in the case of Pusiga, he explained that the voters claimed that they had not been there to transfer their votes, meanwhile, their names were in Pusiga constituency, adding that the commission had, therefore, set up a committee to investigate, “and the first thing we did was to suspend the District Officer for breaching the rules and additionally for him not to interfere with investigations”.
The Deputy EC Chairman said a preliminary investigation by the commission had revealed that photographs on the Voter’s ID cards of the affected voters were used to effect the transfer without the knowledge of the voters.
He stressed that the EC would not shield any of its officials found culpable to have been involved in the illegal transfers.
Dr Asare has, therefore, urged the public to ignore comments that the register was not credible and not fit for this year’s elections.
He indicated that the commission had corrected all mistakes in the register, as the EC as a human institution was bound to make mistakes.
“The EC since 2020 has had high voter list and has corrected the wrongs and has nothing to hide because it was not compiling the register to favour any political party, the outcome of the election does not hitch on the Chair of the EC.”
Ghana, he explained was one of the countries with the “most transparent and credible voter registration” and elections, and urged the public to have that confidence for peaceful outcome of the elections.
Dr Asare said copies of the voters register had been given to the political parties and on the EC’s website for the public to access.
BY LAWRENCE VOMAFA-AKPALU
