541 Names Still Missing From Final Voter Register

A total of 541 electorates who registered for the new voter roll have their names missing after compilation of the final document to be used for the 2020 elections.

However, they can still vote on December 7, 2020, when the country heads for the polls, Chairperson of the Electoral Commission (EC), Mrs Jean Mensa, has said.

Following the completion of all the processes for a credible register, Mrs Mensa said: “the deficit stands at 541”.

The final register from the EC contains over 17million names.

The election management body would publish the names of the people affected according to the polling station, district and region by Monday, November 23, 2020.
The affected persons can proceed to have the situation corrected by visiting the offices of the EC.

However, there is no cause for alarm as the EC assures that they would not be disenfranchised.

“Their form 1As and requisite information are being sent to the polling stations where they registered to enable them to take advantage of the manual verification window to enable them to vote on election day,” Mrs Mensa said at a forum on Thursday, November 19, organized by Penplusbytes, a not-for-profit organization in using new digital technologies for good governance and accountability, new media and innovations.

The EC was able to identify the names by conducting a “reconciliation between the final provisional register and the End of Day Reports”.

She said the electoral system ensured that there was a print out of persons who registered from every biometric machine daily during the registration exercise.

So, for the 38 days registration period, every polling station has 38 End of Day Reports “and these reports were made available to the political parties” for accountability.

Missing names

It would be recalled that there were reported missing names from the registration exercise at various centres.

The opposition NDC claimed at least 29,442 names were also missing from the new voter roll.

In Ashaiman, for example, flagbearer of the NDC, former President John Dramani Mahama claimed 7,000 names could not be found in the register even after the EC had updated it.

The worst affected was Binduri in the Upper East Region where at least 7,605 names have disappeared, according to the NDC.

Other areas included Ketu South, Anlo, Akatsi South, Ketu North, Keta, Jirapa, Karaga, Tamale South, Tolon, Klottey Korley, Ashaiman.

Among the high-profile people affected, according to Mr Mahama, was his running mate Professor Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang and MP for Ashaiman, Ernest Norgbey.

Both politicians had the issue corrected but the NDC feared the affected people could be more.

Response from the EC

On Monday, September 28, Mrs Mensa said the EC has “successfully retrieved and continue to retrieve valid applicants, who were missing from the register. We have updated our electronic register with the missing data”.

She cited unintentional human and administrative errors, the process of exportation of as some of the challenged which resulted in some shortfalls in a number of areas.

She said the EC was working to resolve the challenges completely.

Ahead of the polls, the EC has also assured that the results would be ready in 24 hours as compared to 2016 where Ghanaians had to wait for three days.