Chairperson of the Electoral Commission (EC) of Ghana, Jean Mensa, has reaffirmed her commitment to ensuring that the December 2024 elections accurately reflect the will of the people, emphasizing that there will be no rigging to favor any political party.
In a recent briefing to Parliament, Mrs Mensa outlined the EC’s processes for securing election integrity.
She detailed that the electoral body employs a manual system for result transmission, where results are transferred from polling stations across the country to the EC headquarters in Accra.
According to Mrs Mensa, each polling station has its own set of results, which are also duplicated for the respective party agents present. This system, she explained, makes any tampering or alteration at the central level nearly impossible.
“I would like to assure you that whatever comes from the ground, from the polling stations where all the agents of the parties are present, goes to the constituency collation centers where the agents are also present,” Mensa said.
“A tabulation is done in their presence and then it goes to the regional collation centers, followed by the national level. It is not transmitted electronically; rather, it involves hard copies of documents.”
She emphasized that the results, known as pink sheets, are scanned and sent via fax and email, ensuring that parties have access to their copies in real-time to verify the results.
“So I would like to assure you that there is absolutely no way the commission can change anything at the top because the documentation comes directly from the ground and the parties have copies,” Mensa added.
Mrs Mensa also stressed the EC’s dedication to transparency throughout the election process, stating that from registration to result declaration, the Commission will operate with the utmost transparency, fairness, and integrity.
“From the registration to the declaration, our processes are embedded with one key ingredient: transparency. We will continue to uphold transparency, fairness, and integrity as our guiding principles,” she concluded.