According to the Deputy Director of Research of the Electoral Commission Fred Tettey, the commission at best puts names in quarantine where necessary with the possibility of the name being restored, admitting that the word that was used in the initial communication was a technical mistake.
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Election 2020: The Electoral Commission's 32K quarantined names explained
Ghana’s Electoral Commission has explained that it does not have the authority to delete names of registered voters.
Election 2020: The Electoral Commission's 32K quarantined names explained
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Earlier reports indicated the Electoral Commission had deleted up to 30,000 names ahead of the Ghana elections on December 7, 2020.
Speaking on Citi FM, Public Relations Officer of the Electoral Commission Sylvia Annor said:
“The names of about 30,000 registered voters have been deleted or expunged from the provisional voters’ register because they are either on the exceptions lists or the multiple lists. The multiple list is made up of names of all those who engaged in double voting during the voter’s registration exercise.”
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Fred Tettey, however, disclosed during a training session on media action for conflict sensitive reporting and against hate speech organised by the Ghana Journalists Association and National Media Commission with support from STAR Ghana Foundation, UK Aid and EU that the list had increased to a little over 32, 0000.
The Electoral Commission confirmed it is 95% prepared for the elections due in less than four weeks.
Sample of a multiple registration after the Electoral Commission matched the data after the registration process.
Pulse Ghana
Quarantine List
The Electoral Commission of Ghana has a list of 32,621 registrations which have been exempted from the voters’ register. This does not necessarily mean 32, 621 individuals who registered will not be allowed to vote.
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EC’s quarantine list has two categories: the multiple list and the exception list. The multiple list has 18,619 making 0.11% of the entire voters’ register. The exception list has 14,002 making up 0.08% of the total voters for the 2020 elections.
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Multiple List
The EC explains the multiple list as same persons who had different registrations. The biometric could not detect the multiple registrations during the period of registration because of an offline process.
Data was matched from the entire registration afterwards which captured a host of multiple registrations. 18, 619 multiple registrations does not necessarily mean 18,619 individuals as some have double multiples, triple multiples and up.
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Voters on the multiple list will be quarantined from being on Ghana’s voter’s register for a minimum of 5 years and a maximum of 10 years after prosecution.
Exception List
The exception list has 3 categories of individuals which include claimed to be dead or dead, persons challenged on the basis of not being 18 years old, a citizen of Ghana, not resident of the area of registration and not of sound mind. The last of categories on the exception list is person objected to - reporting on the basis or age or any other during the exhibition of the voters who had registered.
Individuals on the exception list can take actions to be reinstated into the main voters’ register. This is done in verification consultation with the district education office, the Ghana Police Service, traditional rulers and political party representatives. The voter can take up the case at the High Court of Ghana if there is the need to challenge a decision made by the consulting parties.
EC biometric voter registration
Pulse Ghana
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Verification to Vote
As it stands, individuals on EC’s 32,621 are not eligible to vote. For the exception list, there is still room to be restored unto the main register.
Here’s how the EC plans to verify voters on December 7.
The EC has 3 methods of verification for the 2020 elections: fingerprint verification, faction verification and manual verification.
Ghana’s Electoral Commission confirmed 17,029,981 voters on the register with 51% female and 49% male. Voters between the ages of 18 to 35 make up 51% of the register with 36 to 45-year-olds making 19.5% of the register.
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46 to 55-year-olds make up 12.2%, 56 to 65 makeup 7.6% with the rest being 66 years old and above.
According to the Fred Tettey, 9600 flashpoints have been identified ahead of election 2020 in Ghana in 273 constituencies.
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