Election observer body CODEO questions integrity of referendum

CODEO says the turn-out figures at some polling stations were unusually high - in some cases as high as 99%, noting that it raises "serious questions about the integrity of the process."

A statement signed by its national coordinator, Albert Arhin, said similar patterns of extremely high voter turn-out figures from the official constituency collated results, including up to 98.5% voter turn-out at some constituencies.

"These include Salaga South, (96%), Nkoranza North (97%), Jasikan (97%), and Krachi West (98.5%). A lot more constituencies had turn-out figures of more than 90%."

It also documented wide disparities and unusually high numbers of manual verification across various polling stations instead of biometric verification.

"At some polling stations where counting of ballots and results declaration were observed by CODEO, the number of voters who were manually verified were found to be more than the number of voters who went through biometric verification.

"Per electoral regulations by the Electoral Commission (EC), manual verification is typically a back-up plan for instances where there are challenges with biometric verification of voters and/or mal-function of the devices. Given that observers generally reported smooth performance of the BVDs and the fact that all polling stations were equipped with back-up BVD machines, it is still not clear to CODEO why unusually high numbers of voters were manually verified instead of biometric verification," CODEO added.

On the alleged videos circulating on social media showing Electoral Commission officials thump printing ballot papers, it urged the "EC and the Police Service to take an interest in these videos and conduct their own investigations to protect the integrity of the process."