By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.
Garden City, New York
Oct. 30, 2015
E-mail: [email protected]
It has taken her quite a while but, finally, Electoral Commissioner Charlotte Osei has spoken to the issue of the forensic electoral fraud widely publicized by the team of New Patriotic Party (NPP) biometric voters’ register experts led by the party’s 2016 Vice-Presidential Candidate, Dr.-Alhaji Mahamudu Bawimia (See “EC Tells NPP to Provide More Evidence” Ultimate 106.9.com / Ghanaweb.com 10/30/15). Responding to the Ketu-South Constituency case, which sent seismic media waves across the country and down the spines of many a concerned Ghanaian not very long ago, the EC Chairperson noted that her office was yet to receive a detailed documentary evidence from Dr. Bawumia and his associates.
There are two important issues to note here, namely, the fact that according to Mrs. Osei, the Electoral Commission was in receipt of some sort of evidence from Team Bawumia. And two, her observation that the documents in receipt by her institution was not detailed and/or comprehensive enough to enable her to draw any meaningful conclusions from the same. Here in the United States, the common expression for this sort of evidentiary characterization is that Team Bawumia has its work cut out for the same. For instance, the EC Chair notes that Dr. Bawumia and his associates, to-date, have yet to amply demonstrate that some registrants on Ghana’s voters’ roll were actually cloned from Togo’s voters’ register. I have absolutely no doubt in my mind that Team Bawumia will not disappoint. What I am not quite certain about, however, is the level and quality of evidentiary proof required by the Electoral Commissioner to work matters in the direction being vigorously pushed by the NPP Presidential Candidate, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.
The good news here is that we shall get to know in the next several days or weeks, whether Team Bawumia would be able to meet such criteria as the EC Chair is reportedly demanding. We hope that such evidentiary proof, as is being demanded by Mrs. Osei, would equally and squarely take into account the very credible narrative of the young disgruntled NDC party couriers and operatives who, not very long ago, appeared at the offices of the Daily Guide newspaper and publicly claimed to have been recruited and/or hired by the Ketu-South Constituency’s National Democratic Congress executives to solicit the names of some hundreds of thousands of Togolese nationals, for the express purpose of entering the names and photographic identities and other vital statistics of these “foreign nationals” into Ghana’s voters’ register, on the promise of providing them access to Ghana’s health insurance program and free access to the country’s hospitals and clinics, as well as some motorbikes.
The very credible testimony of these young men ought to mean something to Mrs. Osei and her administrative staff at the EC. The preceding notwithstanding, I still strongly believe that Team Bawumia and the entire New Patriotic Party constabulary, especially those eagerly awaiting the inauguration of an Akufo-Addo presidency, come January 2017, have a far better in fighting for a radical and thorough auditing of the country’s current voters’ register. They could also constructively push for the immediate establishment of a National Citizenship Identification System to be exclusively used in validating the eligibility of prospective voters at next year’s general election. It is a pity, indeed, that such a foolproof system of voter validation is not already in place.
Mrs. Osei should also be reasonable enough to meet Team Bawumia halfway, should evidence which may not be quite as comprehensive as she is demanding point to glaring evidence of electoral fraud likely effected with the criminal complicity of any of her staff members and EC contractors. There is good reason to believe that Mrs. Osei cares about the wholesome development of Ghanaian democracy, as much as she cares about her own good name and reputation, as well as her legacy.