Voters’ Register too Compromised, No Audit Can Clean It – Bawumia

Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, 2016 Vice-Presidential Candidate to Nana Akufo-Addo has dismissed calls for an Audit of the Voters’ Register, indicating that the Register and the whole Electoral Commission database, has been compromised to the extent that no audit can make the Register clean.

Dr. Bawumia made these comments in New York at the end of the 1st International NPP Youth Conference last Saturday.

Speaking on the case for a new Register, Dr. Bawumia explained that aside the thousands of other Nationals who are on the Ghanaian Register, the biggest issue which demonstrates that the Register and the ECs whole outfit has been compromised, is the evidence of scanned pictures which have found their way onto the Register.

Showing samples of the scanned pictures in the Register, which is evidenced clearly by the staple marks on them, Dr. Bawumia explained that those pictures could only find their way into the Register because the system had been compromised by the very people in charge.

He explained that because the system demands that the pictures used for the register be taken at the spot of registration and automatically entered digitally, it was absurd for there to be pictures in the register with staple pin marks and that the phenomenon could only mean that people in charge of the Electoral Commission’s database had connived with others to register people improperly and smuggle them into the Register.

“What is really worrying about all of this is the discovery of a pattern of scanned pictures in the register. When you go to register, it’s a digital picture that is taken but we noticed scanned pictures which can be by staple marks on them. This for me is the scariest part of our findings. How did these pictures get on the Register? What mechanism allows you to be able to scan pictures and dump them into the register?

It can only mean that the integrity of the system has been compromised. This is because you will need security permissions; passwords etc to be able to access the database and add scanned pictures to them. So the system and the people in charge of the system have been clearly compromised. This is one of the reasons why we are asking for a new register”, he stated.

Dr. Bawumia also raised the issue of the NDC’s ongoing biometric registration of their members as another issue that suggested largely that the register has been compromised. He explained that currently the NDC is going round registering members by taking only their names and their Voters’ ID Cards and without any machines but strangely is able to do ID cards for those who register with their biometric data on it and their database.

This scheme suggests that the NDC has been given access to the Electoral Commission’s database as that could be the only way the NDC could get access to all the details and biometric data of those who register with their party.

“Yesterday, Hon. Napo pointed out a fact to me which infact gave me more sleepless nights. Today the NDC is conducting a Biometric Registration exercise of its members but what is happening is that all they are doing is to take the names and voters ID numbers of those who seek to register; they just take these two. They don’t take fingerprints or pictures but they return with an ID card with your picture and biometric data. So how does this happen? This can only happen because they have access to the EC Database. So how can the NDC or whoever is managing their system have access to the EC Database? ”, he asked.

Dr. Bawumia showed samples of the voters identified to be on both the Ghanaian and Togolese Registers including some who had been discovered on Registers of various Greater Accra constituencies since the Party first presented its case to the Electoral Commission and the Ghanaian public.

The Conference was attended by Matthew OpokuPrempeh, Kennedy Ohene Agyepong, Titus Glover, Freda Prempeh, MPs for Manhyia South, Assin Central, Tema East and Tano North, the National Youth Organizer, Sammi Awuku, National Nasara Coordinator, Kamal Deen, Regional Youth Organizers and Representatives of the Party from the various branches across the world.