Ghana’s Opposition NDC Demonstrates Nationwide Over Independent Audit of Voter Roll

Nationwide protests, held in all 16 regional capitals, had been staged by the NDC on Tuesday, demanding an independent audit of the voter roll ahead of general elections due in December. Supporters attending a rally by Ghana’s largest opposition party, the National Democratic Congress, say the party mobilized millions into the streets. In attendance were massive turnouts in the capital, Accra.

We are not asking for a big favor from the electoral commission; we are demanding our right to free and fair elections,” Johnson Asiedu-Nketiah said, the NDC Chairman told party members before the protest march in Accra. The NDC says it has found close to 300,000 irregularities in the voter roll, including unauthorized transfers of people’s names onto the list and deletions without voters’ knowledge.

The NDC Director of Elections, Omane Boamah, accused the EC of hiding irregularities and hence called for an independent audit facilitated by UNDP. “This independent audit, we say that let the UNDP facilitate it. Is it too difficult? It is difficult because the EC has something to hide,” Boamah said.

Though Ghana has long been considered one of the most peaceful and transparent countries in West Africa, controversies about irregularities in the voter roll have raised fears of democratic regression. This year’s elections are the ninth since Ghana transitioned into multiparty democracy in 1992.

The demands by the NDC for a forensic audit have been rejected by the electoral commission as “misguided,” with the commission holding that the voter roll is accurate and reliable. Still, the opposition party, the NDC, is insisting on an investigation to make sure that the integrity of the electoral process is not compromised.

NDC Chairman Johnson Asiedu-Nketiah explained that there was need for action to be taken far in advance so that Ghana’s democratic process would not be disturbed. “If you tend to be peace-loving and you are condoning wrongdoing, you are the one who is brooding conflict in this country. That is why we are ready to fight against the element that will disturb our democracy,” he said.

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This year’s election pits former President John Dramani Mahama of the NDC who lost in both the 2016 and 2020 elections against Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia of the New Patriotic Party. President Akufo-Addo has stepped down after serving two terms in office.

The protest march in Accra therefore culminated in the NDC presenting a petition to both parliament and the electoral commission. It demanded a bipartisan probe into the conduct of the Electoral Commission, an independent forensic audit of the Voters’ Register, and publication of the audit results immediately after the audit was complete.