Current register can be manipulated to change the outcome of Dec. 7 polls – Jean Mensa

The Chairperson of the Electoral Commission says the existing voters’ register is susceptible to manipulation which could endanger and change the outcome of the December election. Jean Mensa, mounting a strong defense for the Commission’s decision to create a new register for the December polls explained that an audit of the current system had established potential room for election manipulation, with dire consequences on the general election, saying that was something the EC wanted to avert with the new BVR.

She also added that the use of the current voters’ register will force the Commission to rely mostly on manual verification since capturing of fingerprints in the last registration exercise was poorly done.

The EC boss said, this was not a risk the Commission is ready to take.

Madam Jean Mensa further indicated that, out of the 5.4 million people who were verified to vote in the 2019 district assembly election, 35,000 voters were manually verified.

According to her, the current register was not credible because it had been bloated with the names of foreign nationals due to the EC’s acceptance of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) cards for voter registration and the demise of about a million registered voters.

She said the Supreme Court determined that the NHIS card was not a sure proof of citizenship and asked the EC, in 2014, to expunge the names of those who used the NHIS cards for the voter registration from the register.

Addressing the leadership of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) before proceeding to a closed-door engagement on the compilation of the new register in Accra, she said the reason for compiling a new register was to promote free, fair and transparent elections.

Source:Fiilafmonline/JoyNews