Naagyei 90.3 Fm Agyapa
The Chairperson of the Electoral Commission, Jean Mensa has justified the decision to publish the voter’s register ahead of the polls.
She claimed the Commission is enjoined by law to make public details of the register.
The EC splashed a google drive link on its website on Friday, November 20, which displayed details of the over 17,029,981 registered voters. The published register showcases ages of registrants among others.
Critics berated the Election Management Body(EMB) and described the move as “very irresponsible” because the details of each voter have been made available for anyone who has ulterior motives.
However, speaking at a training workshop for journalists in the country, EC Boss, Jean Mensa said the list which has since been pulled down from the EC’s website would be republished after the system has been embedded with enhanced security features.
“The register that was put out, we’re enjoined by law to publish the voter’s register. Indeed the law C.I. 127 requires that the provisional voter’s register is published on our website. That same law states that the final register is published in a manner that the Commission deems fit. And we are well aware that the ID card has come to be used for other activities, but for the commission’s point of view that card is provided for voting purposes only. And in this era of transparency and openness, the Commission believes that it’s important to publish the register and that’s why the register was published to enable citizens check their details.
“Once it was published there some issues with the functionality of the format in which it has been put there. And so the IT was called to include and introduce more systems into it to make it more functional. We intend to upload in the next few days ” she noted at a press conference in Accra Tuesday.
