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Blindfolded And Speeding Towards A Cliff: The Conduct Of Ghana’s Electoral Commission

Feature Article Blindfolded And Speeding Towards A Cliff: The Conduct Of Ghanas Electoral Commission
JUN 4, 2020 LISTEN

In pursuit of democratic development, elections and other political processes are fundamental to the quality of a country’s governance and can either seriously facilitate or set back a country’s development. Elections can only promote sustainable development if they are credible. An essential principle that defines trustworthy elections is that they must reflect the free expression of the will of the people. When elections and associated processes appear to be subverting the will of the people, the credibility of the electoral processes is affected and serious upheavals arise. For electoral processes, the ideal practice is for them to be transparent, inclusive, and accountable, with equitable opportunities for political entities to compete.

The Electoral Commission (EC) of Ghana is the formal body responsible for all public elections. The existence and independence of the EC are guaranteed by the 1992 constitution of Ghana and the Electoral Commission Act (Act 451) of 1993. For Ghanaian citizens to appreciate what is at stake in the foggy processes leading to the 2020 elections there is the need to recount how far we have travelled the democratic journey.

Since 1992, Ghana has conducted seven successive general elections, which have led to peaceful change of power between the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP). The ability of the state to seamlessly transfer power cyclically, through competitive, free and fair elections, has earned Ghana a seat among ‘established democracies’. Indeed, in terms of multiparty democracy, Ghana has enviably modeled for the rest of Africa. Nevertheless, since the course of democratic consolidation is a protracted one, the progress chalked so far cannot be taken for granted, lest the aforementioned gains be lost.

The threat to Ghana’s democracy and stability was subtly launched on June 28, 2018 when President Nana Akufo-Addo dismissed Charlotte Osei, the head of Ghana's EC, and the 2 deputies, Amadu Sulley and Georgina Opoku Amankwaa. While the president insists that he was constitutionally obliged to dismiss the officials after a committee made its recommendations, pursuant to article 146 (1) of the constitution, However, the NDC indicted the government of deliberately targeting EC’s chair. Of course, the NPP had a motive to dismiss her and replace her with a ‘friend’ they would trust and ‘engage well with’. When the chameleon brings forth a child, is that child not expected to dance?

With the professional backgrounds of Mrs. Jean Mensa and her deputies, many Ghanaians were confident that they would be competent at the job. We expected that they would work dispassionately to improve the EC's internal governance, with an ultimate focus on strengthening electoral management and credibility of the EC. The corporate character of the EC has fast eroded the confidence in the commissioners’ competence and impartiality. A test of the commissioners’ competence was made when they supervised the referendum on creation of the six new regions, in December 2018. This referendum was characterized by serious violations; some of which had video evidence circulated in social media. The December 17, 2019 District Level and Unit Committee Elections were not also immune from the violations, although the EC claimed a 99 percent success rate. Many Ghanaians thought otherwise!

With a foolhardiness of the EC to compile an entirely new register, instead of ‘cleaning’ and updating the existing biometric register, as may be pragmatic in this eon of COVID-19, the nation is accelerating towards a cliff. From the outset, the EC has not been consistent with the reasons for the need for a new electoral register. What is consistent has been the lingering interest to have a new register.

In a December 31, 2019 press statement, the EC communicated its intention to procure a new Biometric voter management solution ahead of the 2020 general elections with claims that the decision was based on the advice of its IT team and external consultants. They appealed that, it would be prudent to acquire a new system rather than refurbish the current system. Other reasons cited included the cost of frequent replacement of failing parts and the renewal of warranties through third parties was equivalent to the acquisition a brand new system with complete service and warranties.

One argument the EC, has made, supported by the NPP, is that the current Biometric Verification Device (BVD) is unable to verify a number of voters electronically occasioning a high number of manual verification during voting. Moreover, this compromises the integrity of the elections. The EC therefore swiftly proposed using new scanners and software with improved fingerprint capturing algorithm and with facial recognition as an additional feature for those whose fingerprints cannot be verified.

Rigorous analysis done by discerning individuals, political groups, civil society organizations (CSOs) and think tanks, have revealed that the EC’s arguments have been nothing of ‘matter-of-fact’ but a pursuit of a voracious interest. The IMANI Centre for Policy and Education, which has been a leading Think Tank in matters of national interest, has demonstrated beyond doubt that the EC has spent over $40 million of our tax cash since 2016 grounded on the recommendations of an objective system audit to get the current system into top shape to guarantee the quality of elections.

Apart from the EC’s own tacit admissions, the Coalition of Domestic Election Observers (CODEO) and EU reports indicate that the 2016 elections and biometric operations were better than the 2012 and that the 2019 district level elections and biometric operations were smoother than the 2016 version. IMANI has provided evidence, which indicates that while “33% of polling stations recorded a failure of BVDs in 2012, it dropped to less than 7% in 2016, and went even lower to less than 5% in the December 2019 elections”. A system with a false rejection rate of 0.64% in the 2019 district elections, comparable to 3% and 5% false rejections rates of Indonesia’s e-KTP and India's Aadhar system, respectively. Internationally, they are among the largest and most sophisticated biometric systems. In a milieu of these facts, which pegs Ghana’s system a notch higher than some of the world's best, how can it be described by Jean Mensa led EC as "obsolete”? A lie begets a lie!

Excepting the EC’s foolhardiness in building a new voters register and a biometric voter management system, the timelines for such an elaborate exercise are technically impossible to meet. The EC will have to wade through the passing of the Constitutional Instrument (CI) by Parliament after the 21 days maturation. In addition, the EC must document and gazette the details of all registration centres and make them available to the various political parties, 21 days prior to the start of the registration exercise. Observing the COVID-19 prevention etiquette at the registration centres as the EC has stated, will limit the number of people to be registered daily. Spending 6 days per polling station, the whole registration exercise is estimated to capture more than 17 million eligible voters nationwide. It is interesting to reminisce that with about 12 million eligible voters in the 2012 biometric voter registration exercise, the EC worked for 10 days at each polling station. It appears also that the EC is yet to exhaust the procurement processes for the Biometric Voter Registration (BVR) kits, which will be deployed for the exercise.

A new system will obviously come with its inherent problems. There are examples from many countries that indicate that the problems with biometric installations only get fully resolved with time and ripeness. We cannot accept any excuses for failure of technology, especially when the EC has ignored all reasonable caution to defer its intention. Ghana should not risk the 2020 general elections on an ‘unknown system’ that is yet to be tried. We have an option of using the tried and tested system, which has since 2012 improved significantly to surpass, in accuracy, some of the most sophisticated systems globally.

Equally worrisome, in addition to the unruliness of the EC, is the plain disingenuity of Mrs. Jean Mensa. After the ‘2012 election petition’, the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) under Jean Mensa commissioned the current Speaker of Parliament, Professor Mike Oquaye, to do a monograph (No. 38 IEA Monograph) entitled “Strengthening Ghana's Electoral System: a Precondition for Stability and Development”. The IEA considered the publication as “a competent treatment worthy of public consideration”. Indeed, in the monograph, Prof. Oquaye contends, “Electoral Reform is akin to continuing education. It has no immediate end, especially in fledgling democracies. The process should be professional, non-partisan and transparent; it must be seen as a true reflection of the people's will by politicians and the citizenry alike”.

In Jean Mensa’s consideration of Prof. Oquaye’s work as “competent treatment”, does the EC she leads now conduct the processes professionally, transparently and in a non-partisan manner? Does the EC’s scheme to disenfranchise many Ghanaians amount to a “true reflection of the people’s will? Certainly, an EC muscularly seeks to amend the Constitutional Instrument (C.I 91) to make the ‘Ghana Card’ or passport acceptable documents for registration onto the voters’ register, is indirectly subverting the people’s will. The NPP has been predominantly more elitist and has been attractive to the ‘middle class’ who happen to the stratum of the population with access to proposed registration eligibility documents – the Ghana Card and passport. Conversely, the NDC is predominantly a mass party; attractive to the grassroots and lower class populations, with an inconsequential number holding the passports. Yet significant numbers in many regions were either not captured by the National Identification Authority (NIA) or were only partially done with the exercise, and are, nevertheless, waiting to collect their cards. If the EC went ahead with this constricted eligibility criteria for registration, many citizens, especially, the ‘masses’ would be denied their right to register and to vote! Even more nebulous is the EC’s recognition of the alternative eligibility criterion of “persons who have already registered to acquire the new voters’ card guaranteeing for others to register”. This is classically ‘a walking stake turned upside-down’ – sons and daughters with passports or Ghana Card will then have to vouch for their parents as citizens for them to be able register.

Many of us as citizens, CSOs and politicians, and others, have had the belief that rigging an election is a process, and could be orchestrated long before the election day. Prof. Oquaye concludes that the electoral cycle approach depicts elections as a continuous, integrated process made up of building blocks that interact with and influence each other, rather than as a series of isolated events”. He argues further that the “Integrity of the election process is holistic and refers to a state of completeness from beginning to the end of an electoral cycle. Election analysts often use an old adage that only amateurs steal elections on election day. Hence, the purity of elections must cover all stages in the process, as well as fundamental institutional and policy choices related to the electoral system, competition and outcomes.

Surprisingly, Jean Mensa who agreed with Prof. Oquaye in 2012 has only become indifferent to such reasonable standpoints, especially when she finds herself in a seat with the opportunity, or maybe power to improve the integrity of the EC. The respectability of the processes leading to the 2020 presidential and parliamentary elections are as crucial as the results of the elections. Ghana has a choice to escape the inherent furore, which characterizes disputed election outcomes. The EC must wake up from this lethargy and delusional independence and act on strengthening its competence, professionalism and integrity so that public expectations will be met, and the results of the elections it oversees are accepted with little or no bitterness.

Unfortunately, the nation’s ‘temperature of peace and stability’ is already getting high to a convulsive degree; needlessly stoked by bare incompetence of the EC or a sinister motive pursued ineptly. Either way, the EC is blindfolded and speeding towards a cliff. Falling off the cliff will leave us with sustained periods of political fragility and standoff, deflating national stability. “A canoe does not know who is king. When it turns over, everyone gets wet’ - Malagasy proverb.

Long live Ghana!

Long live Ghana’s Democracy!

By MOHAMMED MUSAH | [email protected]

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