The New Patriotic Party is not happy with moves
by the Electoral Commission to opt for the electronic transmission of results
from the 7th December polls.The EC is far-advanced in awarding the
contract for e-transmission. Five companies were shortlisted and they are
expected to do a demonstration of their respective solutions in the latter part
of next week.
So far, no political party or civil society organization
has received invitation from the EC to attend the demonstration.
Speaking
on Sunday, Peter Mac Manu, the Campaign Manager of the opposition NPP, says the
EC has not been able to convince the country why it intends to do e-transmission
of poll results in December.
“First, there is no law which gives the EC
the mandate to electronically transmit results. Nothing in the law before
Parliament now, C.I. 94, makes mention of it,” Mr Mac Manu says.
“Also,
the law talks about the EC receiving all the collated results from the Statement
of Poll and Declaration of Results (pink sheets), signed by party agents at the
constituency level, and the expectation is that they will be brought to the
National Collation Centre before the winner of the presidential race will be
declared,” he says.
One of the main demands from the election petition,
which followed the 2012 presidential contest, is for the returning officer, Mrs
Charlotte Osei, to not declare the results without having physical custody of
all the collated pink sheets from all 29,000 polling stations nationwide.
The EC has not said it intends to declare a winner based on the results
transmitted electronically, however. The NPP is, therefore, not convinced why
the EC will spend good money to invest in e-transmission.
“If the EC does
not intend to declare results based on e-transmission, then for what purpose is
that option to us? We require some good answers here,” he says.
“The
focus, we believe, should rather be on first ensuring that a certified true copy
of the pink sheet, from each of the 29,000 is brought to the National Collation
Centre before the Chairperson of the EC finally declares the winner. They can
all be brought to Accra within 48 hours from even the remotest part of Ghana,”
Mr Mac Manu argues.
The EC placed an Expression of Interest advert in the
dailies on 2nd March 2016. 16 companies responded, five of them have been
shortlisted. They are, namely, InfoTrend, BSystems/Computer Foundation, Persol
Systems, Scytl and Smartmatic.
The NPP is also raising other concerns
over the integrity of e-transmission, which they believe has been compounded by
the reluctance of the electoral management body to be transparent to key
stakeholders and the general public on the details of the proposed
e-transmission.
“Potentially, the results can be tampered with, and by
that I mean modified mid-transmission. Particularly in the absence of strong
network security and encryption.
“Also, if the system starts sending
and breaks down midstream, there could be confusion. We have seen that in
Ecuador, where for two weeks the results were not coming. We have seen that in
Mexico and we have also seen e-transmission failing in Kenya, which was the main
reason behind their election petition in 2012,” the former NPP National Chairman
recalls.
He poses further questions: “Should the partial results sent be
accepted? How should the rest be captured? In the process could there be a
manipulation of the result?”
Mr Mac Manu does not see e-transmission as
addressing the critical challenges that the reform process seeks to do.
“For example,” he notes, “results transmission does not in any way
control the abuse of the electoral process. It does not address ‘foreign’
ballots. It is an ‘after-the-fact’ process. If there are only 800 voters on the
register how will the system prevent transmission of results cast in excess of
that number?”
To the NPP, e-transmission can end up creating confusion
where there is a discrepancy between the electronically transmitted results and
what is contained on the actual pink sheet.
Their Campaign Manager,
however, admits that e-transmission will mean “quick receipt of election results
at the centre, which will mean, the outcome of national election can be
determined quickly. But we should never substitute accuracy for speed.”
He further concedes, if done properly, the process of confirming or
accepting receipt of e-transmitted results can be more open & transparent.
“But, if the EC was really serious about e-transmission then it should
have backed that with legislation. No constitutional instrument supports this
radical shift. Very ironic for a commission that insists on deleting names
according to existing law even where the Supreme Court has ordered so,” Mr Mac
Manu says. |
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