The Electoral Commission (EC) has made public the results of a continuing study into the transfer of unauthorised votes. According to the preliminary findings, 38 people’s transfers were actually completed using an EC official’s credentials. Audit logs in the Voter Management System (VMS) revealed that photos from voters’ ID cards were used for facial verification to complete the transfers, according to Dr. Bossman Asare, Deputy Chairman of the Electoral Commission (EC) in charge of Corporate Services. EC made this announcement on Monday, September 2, during a press briefing.
This is in response to reports that certain electors were inadvertently shifted to the Pusiga Constituency in the Upper East Region from two polling places in the Tamale South Constituency and one in the Sagnerigu Constituency. The voters in the Tamale South and Sagnerigu Constituencies incident, according to Dr. Asare, have denied participating in a transfer activity. He claimed that they implied that a person named Haruna Muniru had obtained their voter ID cards, purportedly in order to arrange a loan.
He claims that although the EC does not currently have any information indicating that this practice is common, enquiries are being conducted to find out if incidences of this nature have happened outside of the Tamale South and Sagnerigu constituencies. Dr. Asare pledged that “any such transfers will be reversed, and the perpetrators of such acts shall be dealt with according to the law.” The Pusiga District Electoral Officer has been suspended by the Commission and asked to answer to its findings as a result of these findings.
Additionally, the EC has reiterated its commitment to protecting the integrity of Ghana’s election process by checking everyone’s credentials and stated that it will not defend any of its officers—permanent or temporary—who are shown to have participated in any electoral malpractices. The EC added a new security mechanism to the verification process called a “liveliness check” in reaction to this occurrence. This precaution is meant to guarantee that biometric information is obtained from a real, living person and not from a faked source, like the photo that was used in the case that was reported.
SOURCE: https://dew360.net
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