Election matters
The credibility of an electoral register, especially one that provides the privilege to vote, lies at the heart of orderly, peaceful and transparent elections. That is why the Electoral Commission must evaluate the reactions at the primaries of both the New Patriotic Party(NPP) and National Democratic Congress (NDC). The concomitant electoral violence arose because the credibility of the registers was impugned.
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In both situations, some of the candidates insinuated that the registers were flawed and skewed to favour some candidates. Indeed, in the case of the NDC, some party officials claimed that those who voted against the candidacy of President John Dramani Mahama were opposition elements who managed to get their names into the party’s register.
The point is that there are many within the NDC who view calls for a new voters register as red herrings although they admit that the register contains names which otherwise should not have been there. Now, if such people
It was alleged that names of some members of the parties were missing from the register although they were registered.
Claims
There were equally claims that in a number of places, electoral materials did not arrive on time whereas in other areas, there were shortages of materials. All these point to the fact that to err is human and therefore when it happens to the Electoral Commission, the parties should not hasten to accuse the commission of deliberately undermining the will of the people.
There is the other problem of spoilt ballots. At the national election, the phenomenon is attributed to reluctant and unwilling party agents out there to challenge anything that does not favour their party. But in the NDC Presidential primary, there was a sole candidate and all that voters were to do was to mark the ballot paper yes or no. Yet, a sizeable percentage of ballots were declared spoilt. Was it any argument between agents which necessitated the declaration of the ballot as spoilt or what prompted such a decision?
Lessons
All these are lessons that should set all of us, particularly the Electoral Commission, thinking as to what we need to do to resolve the problems and make the process more credible and transparent to ensure peaceful and orderly national elections next year.
I do not think that any of the leadership of the NPP or NDC will accept that they deliberately eliminated some qualified names from the register or that they decided to provide inadequate election materials such that some perceived candidates would be disadvantaged. They would, however, admit that there was a flaw. We should not be quick to describe any inadequacies in an election process as fraudulent. So also should candidates not jump to conclusion that any error observed is directed against their interest and to favour their opponents, because when the same registers are used and the results go their way, they claim victory and never refer to their success as arising from fraud or a flawed register.
With particular reference to spoilt ballot papers, what happened at the NDC primaries must inform us that the issue is not just about party agents who do not want to compromise. It is about a real problem of people who do not understand the simple process of properly making a choice on a ballot paper. After all, in the case of President Mahama, it was one face on the ballot and voters were to mark yes or no. If in a straight forward ballot paper of this nature spoilt ballots were counted in the thousands, then the incident could be multiplied in a national election with a large number of candidates and party symbols.
It is thus imperative for the Electoral Commission and the National Commission for Civic Education to team up with the political parties and civil society organisations engaged in deepening democracy to offer sustained education to the electorate to understand and appreciate the necessity to protect and guard their franchise such that every vote cast will count towards the declaration of a genuine and true winner in any public election.
Therefore, I want us to begin thinking aloud to see whether the voters register in its current discredited form could be justifiably used in the next general election and whether such a register could win public trust and confidence. We should equally think aloud about what we need to do to reduce the influence and power of spoilt ballots, which sometimes are more popular than some of our political parties and candidates.