Veteran Journalist Abdul Malik Kweku Baako has thrown a challenge to the National Democratic Congress (NDC) to provide evidence to support their demand for an independent forensic audit of Ghana’s Register of Voters.
In a recent write-up, Kweku Baako Jnr questioned the specificity of the NDC’s case for the audit, asking whether they have made public the full complement of specifics that inform their demand.
He argued that the issue of whether or not an audit is needed cannot be reduced to an academic or intellectual exercise, but rather should be viewed through the lens of realpolitik and statecraft.
The Managing Editor of Crusading Guide Newspaper, Kweku Baako’s intervention comes at a time when the debate about the voter register is heating up.
The NDC has been accusing the Electoral Commission (EC) of bloating the register with ghost names, while the EC has denied these allegations.
In 2020, the EC compiled a new voter register, which was used for the presidential and parliamentary elections.
However, the NDC and some other opposition parties raised concerns about the credibility of the register, citing issues such as duplication of names and the inclusion of non-Ghanaians.
The EC has since implemented some reforms aimed at addressing these concerns.
However, the NDC remains skeptical, hence their demand for an independent forensic audit.
Kweku Baako’s questions about the scope and coverage of the audit are critical.
What specific areas of the register does the NDC want to be audited? What are the key issues that they want the audit to address?
Moreover, Kweku Baako’s point about the timing of the demand is also relevant. Does it make sense to embark on a forensic audit just three months before an election? How pragmatic and realistic would that prescription be?
Kweku Baako’s challenge to the NDC is simple: provide evidence to support your claim. If the NDC has evidence of widespread irregularities in the voter register, they should make it public.
However, the NDC needs to provide clear answers to these questions if they want to convince Ghanaians that their demand for an independent forensic audit is not just a political gimmick.
