The National Democratic Congress (NDC) has called on the Electoral Commission (EC) to permit live media coverage of the upcoming Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC) meeting scheduled for Tuesday, October 1, 2024.
The meeting will focus on resolving issues surrounding the 2024 voters register.
The NDC’s Director of Elections and IT, Dr. Edward Omane-Boamah, stressed that live media coverage of the meeting is essential for transparency, as it would allow the public to follow discussions on the state of the voters register in real time.
The party believes that this move would help address the ongoing tensions between the NDC and the EC over alleged errors in the voters register and ensure that the public receives accurate information.
According to Dr. Omane-Boamah, the EC’s recent self-audit of the voters register has not resolved all the problems, particularly issues of missing names. He revealed that as of September 29, 2024, there were still unresolved cases of voters whose names could not be found on the register.
This, he argues, points to deeper challenges that could affect the upcoming elections if not addressed.
In a Facebook post on Monday, September 30, 2024, he also highlighted the potential consequences of such manipulation, which could result in biometric verification devices (BVDs) failing to authenticate some voters on election day, even if their names appear on the printed voters register.
While the NDC has been pushing for a forensic audit of both the register and the EC’s IT systems, Dr. Omane-Boamah noted that this demand could not be fully addressed at the IPAC meeting.
Nevertheless, he argued that allowing live coverage of the meeting would help prevent misinformation and ensure the public is fully informed.