Electoral Issues Pending And General Matters Of Concern For Redress

INTRODUCTION
Due to the fact that Ghanaians are yearning for the right things to be done in the country in terms of free and fair elections and also from the recent call by the Electoral Commission (EC) wanting to receive public and political parties opinion on the recent happenings regarding the voters register, I hereby wish to submit my expertise and technical service to the commission for consideration.

Clearly, I have decided to write this report because I am a Ghanaian and also want the right things to be done in the country so that Ghana will become the best place to live.

2012 ELECTION PETITION AND THE SUPREME COURT RULING

As we can all see, it was not a unanimous decision, but rather a majority decision which we have to all understand and move forward but moving forward means we have to take things serious and do the right things so that we can all see our elections as credible and trusted one. The ruling left a lot to be desired in moving forward, hence, more depends on the EC to do the right things so that Ghanaians would have that believe going in to the 2016 election.

THE MATTER OF “NO VERIFICATION NO VOTE”

The EC should please debunk the public perception or statement that no verification no vote. Well, with regards to a professional and technical point of view if a person cannot be verified electronically then the person doesn't get to vote or is denied access to further information or interaction is denied. For example, take email address and its login process, if a user forgets his or her password cannot gain access to the inbox to see or read messages and interact with the world at large. This is a fact whether email for an office or on a social media like google.com or yahoo.com or hotmail etc. Before one can gain access to information in the inbox when the password is forgotten then the person would have to answer certain questions for validation before the password reset permission would be allowed or given by the administrator or Internet Service Provider. Technically, every ISP has a procedure in password recovery and some may ask that if you forget your password, you may provide them your email address and they will then send you a default password to alternative email or mobile number you provided them. So, such password recovery is inconclusive because its base on the designer or developer, hence, it is about laid down procedures and guidelines. In this case password for email addresses are for verification process to indicate that you are the true owner of the address, therefore, if correct you get access and if not correct security questions will be asked and answers demanded.

Also, take bank ATM process for example, customers are given bank cards or cash cards to gain access to their funds through ATM's. In this case, if a customer slots in a card and put in the wrong pin number, then it will reject the transaction automatically. This means, before the person can use the cash card the person will then have to contact the bank personally for a new pin to be reset. Here the person will be given a form to answer several questions and with details required for validation before they can reset it for the customer which will be a new pin or the same depending upon the set up or software developed. Here, the pin number to the bank card is for verification.

So therefore, the two examples are based on electronic and also biometric because some use finger prints as a pass to gain access to funds. Hence, these are based on security reasons therefore could have several requirements such as combined password and pin or either password or pin with a finger print. Some can even use eyes or facial recognition. It all depends upon what the system requires by the developer or creator.

Now, looking at election matters which has to do with people voting for a winner of their choice is attached to their emotions, passions, hatred, anger, joy etc from any group or persons is the game of elections. This is where the EC needs to show professionalism in coming out with expert policies that would curb all these behaviours to bring us peaceful elections. So, I don't advice the EC to agree with the term no verification no vote. But then I would rather expect the EC to define and establish clear procedures and standards to conform to laid down procedures and steps. For example, my expert advice to the EC is as follows:

1. With the biometric registration or register which expects every registered voter to be verified digitally is the general standard and basis of voting in Ghana now but if the challenge comes that a voter cannot be verified digitally on the data captured long time before is where the expert technique is highly needed. If all things go according to plan this is the general rule by EC voter regulation, that is, for a voter to go through both manually and digitally verification process before being allowed to cast their votes. Hence the below is my expert advice.
2. During the day of election there is the need for the EC to continue to plan for the future because future is uncertain and anything can happen that day with regards to the use of the machines (e.g. breakdown). Therefore, I would advice that a special ballot box be added to all originally planned ballot boxes per each polling station so that if a voter's name is in the register with the printed facial picture but the voter finger print could not be detected or recognized by the system digitally, then such a voter must be allowed to vote but such vote must be posted in the extra special ballot box created or added. Such box can be labeled MANUALLY VERIFIED VOTERS BOX.
3. Because if (2) above is not taken into consideration and such voters are allowed to put their votes into the same boxes in which those who are totally verified both manually and digitally, it will mean that over voting will occur in that box just like what happened in the 2012 Election. This is because, the digital total votes will not equal the total sheets of voter papers in the ballot box hence, point (2) above needs to be taken seriously to equate the votes properly and this will erase the problem of over voting because at the end all boxes will be counted.
4. It is about the people (human factors), hence every voter present must vote and no delay but appropriately as discussed in the above points. It must be planned as regulation and policy - point (2) above. We must note that technology is developed or created by human beings; hence, the whole system can fail at any point in time during or before operations. Therefore, the policy on Manual verification is important but with different ballot boxes will be significant and it will be easy to analyze during collation of votes for clarity. Don't let us always create unnecessary problems and tensions for ourselves, if everything is according to laid down procedures and policies then there would not be any problem with our voting system. Let us not pay too much attention to the digital machine for verification because if it functions well, then perfect according to original plan but if not then the plan B. This should not just be wasting time of bringing in new or stand-by machines, all is waste of time and unnecessary. For example, even personal computer or laptop at times goes off without you knowing how? And how more a digital machine? Sometimes you try to boot or on your computer and it will not boot or come on because of technical problems and it takes days to service or it may totally become completely dysfunctional or obsolete. And this is about elections on a limited time and limited day(s).

WHAT CONSTITUTE OVER-VOTING?
My expert explanation to over voting would be:

1. At the polling station: It is when the total number of votes in the ballot box(es) is more than the total number of people who effectively casted their votes including the spoilt or rejected votes.
2. After Election Process: It is when the total number of figures of vote casted and entered in an official document provided by the EC is more than the total number of voters written on the same document including the rejected or spoilt votes noted. This is about dealing with official recorded documents provided by the EC on Election Day as their office and formal data considered.

This means there are two definitions or explanation that the EC can consider as above, which will make every election peaceful and when matters arise everybody will know where and how it would be resolved. But both (a) and (b) above points can be verified or cross checked by recount of ballot papers to establish the facts by confirmation of the problem and then decide either to use (a) or (b). If general election in a country is about democracy and the rule of law and proper regulations, and when problems of over voting occurs and it is truly over voting, then, that particular polling station results must be cancelled and new elections to take place there. In (b) above, if it is only that the figures are miscalculated then it can be corrected on its face without any problem because it is obvious that 1+1= 2 and not 3 or 4 or 5, if not 2 but any other figure or number written then it is easy to correct it to 2 without any problem. But also if it is that 1+1+5=2, then clearly there is a mistake hence if it is detected to be at a disadvantage of one party then it must be corrected appropriately as 7 and then also make sure that the 5 is properly added or allocated to the right party figures.

The most serious problem is when it is that 1+1+5=7 and rejected/spoilt votes =3 and the total number of the people who voted is 8. Then clearly there is over-voting of 2 which needs to be checked if not the results should be cancelled and new elections should take place at that polling station.

WHAT IS ADMINISTRATIVE ERROR?
Administrative error can come in many forms because it depends on the operational policy of a company's business. For example, in a business point of view, several administrative errors on the part of an employee can amount to a disciplinary action being taken against the staff because of several wrongful errors. So, it is something that can cause the company's business to suffer certain consequences as set back.

But when it comes to election matters of errors, I don't think that anybody is expected to make silly errors and want it to be considered as minor and not major error. For example, after votes have been counted and party A obtained 120, party B 300, and party C 101. And in the records of these results, there was transposition error such as instead of party A being recorded with 120 it rather recorded 300 which is for party B and party B rather has a record of 120, this can be considered as serious offence, but it must be corrected amicably when detected and rather punish or apply some sanctions by arresting and prosecuting the person or people responsible. This will deter people from being lazy or mischievous or cheating during elections. Stringent sanctions must be laid down for the players' awareness if the right thing is not done by them. In this case, it will prevent bribery and corruption during election collation of figures and data capturing or entry. People might think that the work of elections as representative is a play and free to do whatever and get away with it because nobody has ever been sanctioned or punished.

Also, fraudulent documentation or data cannot be an administrative error but criminal because for example if it happens that a counterfeit or fake form is used to capture data and it is detected then it cannot be an administrative error but rather a crime has been committed and investigation has to be conducted and perpetrators must be punished accordingly but such results must be cancelled and new elections must be conducted or the original box can be counted if all parties agree to do that.

In fact, generally, administrative error can only be referred to data entry errors or features of a form bearing wrong or inconsistent sequence of coding system. These can be corrected upon investigations accordingly. In this case, administrative errors can or may affect the election results professionally if the right policies and guidelines are drawn and are followed just as the above discussions.

THE ASSERTION THAT “ELECTIONS ARE WON AT POLLING STATIONS”

This assertion must be debunked by the EC so that it will reduce tensions during Elections. This statement means that after vote count if there are even errors or over-voting or any disagreement arising, does that mean the laws of Ghana cannot go into it to make ruling later if the matter is brought before it? Will that also mean there is no remedy or relief? And does that mean, the courts of Ghana cannot over turn election results if the errors and mistakes are to be taken into consideration, then we have to remove the law in our constitution that say that parties can challenge election results as it may be a myth and not a law? That is, if people perception and ideas about this statement is what is seen to be paramount.

I believe the laws of Ghana must work because if there is the need for the court to overturn election results, it should do so, since everybody say that we are law abiding citizens and this will bring trust and also serve as warning to parties who want to steal or manipulate election processes and results.

Besides, the statement is wrong because it should rather be stated that total votes of candidates are won at polling stations and not that elections are won at polling stations because it is the EC that announces the final winner(s) of election such as Presidential and Parliamentary elections. So therefore, one or two polling station results cannot be classified as general election results because all polling stations will have to be collated by the EC and totaled to find the winner of the general election. Therefore, elections cannot be won at polling stations but rather total vote counts per each candidate can be determined at the polling stations. This is because winning an election has to do with compilation of several results to determine the winner per the law or constitution of the state.

RECENT OR CURRENT ISSUE OF NPP CONCERN OVER FOREIGN NAMES ON THE REGISTER – NEW REGISTER OR AUDITING THE CURRENT ELECTORIAL REGISTER OR WHAT ELSE?

My position on this matter is that we need to be serious as a nation and do things that will benefit us all now and till thy kingdom come. We have been deceiving ourselves too much and think that we are who we think we are but we are not unless we do things right. And as President Obama once said that in Ghana we need strong institutions to work. This means that we have the institutions but they are fake or sub-standard because they fail to work towards the interest of general development and alleviation of people suffering but only resort to cheap politics about how to win votes and be in power. We still have a long way to go.

If the EC carry out their investigations based on what the NPP have submitted to them, and it is true that wrong people names are in our current voters register, then the EC should not listen to anybody but do their work as mandated by the constitution and create a new register because of the following reasons:

1. We don't have a national database to serve as the basis of our election records in terms of validations.
2. The EC register is not and cannot be a national database or trusted database since it does not take into consideration the addresses and locations of people who register but only name and age.
3. It is not every Ghanaian citizen whose names are in the voters register as the Statistical Service will have the population census.

Hence, the voters register must always be subject to change whenever there is the need to do so because election is a process based on guidelines and the will of the people. People register but during election they decide whether to attend and vote or not. We cannot just deceive ourselves and think that the voters register is clean and must be accepted by all in Ghana as a formal document. No. Such a register is only to serve a single purpose of voting one time and not so many times and it should always be compiled at all times until we have a national database system that can be linked to the register to deter abnormalities and fraudulent acts. I per se have never seen or think that the voters register is a formal document for all Ghanaians because it is not a national database but it is only a register of voters for people who register to vote in general elections.

This is my expert opinion; we need two registers in Ghana Electoral system, that is, one for literates and the other for illiterates. This should be 50% and 50% respectively at the end of election to determine the winner. This will make politicians to be serious about Ghanaians and will not take people for granted. This will require a constitutional amendment!

WHAT IS VERIFICATION AND VALIDATION?
As I already stated in one of the above discussions, there is difference between validation and verification though there are similarities. Professionally and technically, validation is done by the company or institution during the development of a system to be used. For example, to validate information or data means after a system is developed to serve a purpose such as the voters register, it needs to be tested before implementation of such programme or system. This means, when potential voters go and register their names and their details are captured including their pictures and serial numbers or registration codes or numbers are given or provided to them in the ID; when the process is finished, then the next step is to validate the database created for the register by the institution or company. This means that another date must be fixed so that the people who registered and were given registration codes or numbers will be called upon to come and identify themselves with the information they have submitted, whichever method is used by the developer, in this case, the registration numbers or the thumps prints that was captured will follow the same procedure by placing their figures on the screen of the censor to see whether his or her name will appear on the monitor or larger screen with name, date of birth and picture. So when a voter put a number or finger print and another person's name appears or different person's picture appears; it will mean the system has failed because the creators or data entry was done with errors and mistakes, hence, the validation process has failed. But if majority of the voters put their number or thump print and all their details appears, means that, the system has passed a validation stage and it is like a green light, which means it can be used for implementation.

Verification is then a continuous process in the sense that, it has to do, with the guidelines for example, if it is that the register will be used for voting, then, it would be expected that before any registered voter can get chance to cast his or her vote, the person will have to pass the verification stage. That is, he or she must be found in the register with all the features and data that had been captured initially and that will now give the person the chance to go and vote. Refer to no verification no vote discussed in one of the above heading.

MY RECOMMENDATIONS
In addition to the recommendations and expert advice given as above, I have the following recommendation as well.

I wish to suggest that there is the need for us in Ghana to think outside the box by adapting our own initiatives that would harness our way of voting purposefully for competent leadership and not just about the greater the number of votes cast in favour of a particular candidate that determines the leadership of the state without material facts of the leader in question.

Therefore, my suggestion is that we need to introduce two (2) registers. One being the literates and the other being the illiterates registers. The literates register would be those who are educated starting from at least JHS with 18 years and above. And the illiterates register would be those who have never been to school and/or cannot read nor write. So that 50% each would be taken from all the total valid votes cast to give us a total of 100%. The highest in percentage of the votes (over 100%) would be announced the winner. We must remember that, there cannot be equality in decision making for the country but rather fairness. This process would harness our way of making choices and decisions in Ghana which would reflect our economic development and growth because this system would bring positive elections onto the citizenry. In this case the process of collating and declaring of an elected president should be as follows:

SAMPLE

I believe that this system will be logic and fair to the nation. This would not take away the constitutional right of one man one vote. But what it would help is that bringing us good governance in leadership who deserve to serve the nation using knowledge and experience and not just winning by large numbers of all votes casted. This process will bring good governance in the country with regards to decision making and not just higher votes.

Hence, not just people fighting for majority votes to rule but the educated ones would be considered seriously since they are those leading the affairs of the nation and not the illiterates. Besides it would put aspiring leaders to look for the truth and right way to rule and govern but not about the numbers of the votes. This will bring a fair balance with decision makers. This will require a constitutional amendment.

I hope this suggestion would be considered as a matter of urgency. I look forward to hearing from you soon and this would reduce tensions during campaign. Ghana must be changed positively and not by condoning and conniving of negative actions and negative activities. And Ghana would be the winner and not individuals. aka.

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