As Ghana gears up for the 2024 general elections, the shadow of potential electoral fraud looms large, casting doubts over the democratic integrity of the polls. The opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) has intensified its scrutiny of the voter register. The party now demands a forensic audit to address significant discrepancies and irregularities it identified.

Following last Tuesday’s ‘Enough is Enough’ demonstration in the sixteen regional capitals and the presentation of their petition to the Electoral Commission, the NDC, according to the Director of Elections and IT, Dr Edward Omane Boamah will meet on Monday, September 23, with civil society organisations and diplomatic institutions to present the party’s case for an audit.

Key issues that have been highlighted by the NDC and which reveal a pattern of inconsistencies and potential fraud include:

Illicit Voter Additions: Approximately 243,540 voters were improperly added to the 2024 electoral roll, with some instances of repeated entries. Untraceable Voter Transfers: Over 15,000 voter transfer paths cannot be accounted for, raising red flags about the possibility of bogus registrations. Missing Voter Entries: Close to 4,000 voters documented in 2023 are missing from the 2024 provisional register, suggesting a lapse in record-keeping or, worse, deliberate omission. Accounting Anomalies: An additional 2,094 voter transfers were noted, which were not reflected in the Absent Voter List as mandated by law, indicating procedural violations. Data Corruption: Numerous files essential for the administration of elections are corrupted, posing significant risks to the election process.

As Dr Omane Boamah has noted, these findings are just the ‘tip of the iceberg’, signalling potentially systemic flaws within the EC’s processes that could undermine electoral outcomes.

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