Ghana: Electoral Commission Pledges Transparency in Upcoming Elections

During a meeting with the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA), the Electoral Commission (EC) of Ghana reaffirmed its commitment to conducting free and fair elections and provided an update on the infographics.

The Electoral Commission (EC) has reiterated its commitment to providing accurate figures and information to the general public regarding the electoral process.

This assurance comes after facing criticism for errors in data released during the ongoing limited voter registration exercise. The Electoral Commission (EC) admitted to and rectified specific mistakes in infographics while confirming that the overall voter registration statistics remain accurate.

At an interactive session with the Ghana Journalist Association (GJA) and other stakeholders, the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission, Jean Mensah, appealed to the public to trust in the Electoral Commission's processes and operations.

"Whilst I do not hold brief for the team, because they were relying on Coral Draw to come up with these pie charts and graphs and so on, they were doing it manually. And so what we have done is go back to the drawing board and use Excel. As a result, I want to use your organization to tell Ghanaians to trust in us to deliver accurate and peaceful elections. "And so we may not have those colourful graphs, and the focus should not be on that because the application that was being used was not able to do accurate tabulations, so you will find that people had to do it manually," Mrs. Mensah said.

Speaking on the Commission's efforts to address past mistakes and build public trust, she said her outfit has resorted to using Excel instead of Coral Draw as a gesture of good faith.

"So the Coral Draw has been abandoned, and Excel has been applied. But again, I say this because we are a listening Commission and intend to build trust, you come back and let the people know what went wrong and what has been done."

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The Electoral Commission (EC) is the primary election body in Ghana, responsible for overseeing all national elections.

Currently, the EC is conducting a limited registration exercise for first-time voters. This exercise will allow first-timers to vote in the 2024 elections, scheduled to take place in December.

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