“Elections are won or lost at the polling station.”

The position of the Electoral Commission of Ghana has always been that the outcome of elections is determined at the Polling Stations. Over the years, the electoral system and processes have been improved and enhanced. Every stakeholder familiar with Ghana’s electoral system understands that given the level of transparency and active participation of all stakeholders, especially the political parties, at each stage of the electoral process, it is practically impossible to rig elections in Ghana for one party or the other. Yet, this has not stopped political parties and other stakeholders with vested interests from accusing the Electoral Commission (EC) of seeking to rig elections during election years.

What Does It Mean to Rig Elections?

Allegations of rigging elections are a global phenomenon not unique to Ghana. But what does it mean to rig elections?

According to the Collins Dictionary, “If someone rigs an election, they dishonestly arrange it to get the result they want or to give someone an unfair advantage” (https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/rig-an-election).

The Cambridge Dictionary defines “Ballot rigging” as, “the practice of using illegal methods to obtain a particular result in an election” (https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/ballot-rigging#google_vignette).

From these definitions and others not quoted here, rigging elections involves manipulating the electoral process to illegally interfere with the elections. This could mean helping to increase the votes of a particular candidate or party, depressing the votes of another, arranging to fix the results, or using illegal methods to obtain a particular outcome.

Ghana’s Electoral Process is Credible

Ghana’s electoral process comprises electoral laws, the demarcation of electoral boundaries, voter registration, candidate nomination, and the elections themselves. What makes Ghana’s electoral process so credible such that it is impossible to rig elections? In Part One of this two-part series, we will discuss voter registration, the exhibition of the provisional voters register, balloting for positions on the ballot paper, and the printing of ballot papers.

Electoral Laws

The Constitution of Ghana and other electoral laws provide for credible elections. All stakeholders, especially political parties and candidates, are required to adhere to these electoral laws.

Voter Registration

By law, 21 days before the registration exercise, the Electoral Commission (EC) is required to publish in the Gazette all the registration centers where voters can apply to be registered. All political parties in Ghana and observer groups are made aware of these registration centers.

Political parties have their agents at every registration center nationwide. Additionally, accredited observer groups are present at these centers. Political parties receive both start-of-day and end-of-day reports at each registration center. The start-of-day report provides the total number of voters registered at the registration centre by the close of the previous day, while the end-of-day report provides the cumulative number of registered voters at the close of day. Between the two reports, voters registered at a registration centre for each day can be calculated. Political party agents collate daily figures of registered voters from these reports, in addition to their own independent tallies. The total number of registered voters published by the EC at the end of each day matches the figures collated by the political parties from all gazetted registration centers nationwide. This is as a result of the start-of-day and end-of-day reports, and also as a result of the fact that the political parties themselves also collate daily figures.

For 2024, once the mop-up registration exercise is completed in August, the EC will publish the total number of voters registered from the 2024 limited voters registration exercise, a number that will tally with what the  political parties have collated.

During the registration exercise, voters whose applications were challenged in accordance with the law have their applications examined by the District Registration Review Committee (DRRC) set up in every district. The role of the DRRC is to examine all challenges and to determine, based on available evidence, whether to uphold or reject a challenge. If a challenge is upheld, the voter is removed from the register. Membership of the DRRC, by law, includes one representative of each registered political party active in the district.

Finally, for voters who are deemed to have registered multiple times in violation of the law, their applications undergo a review by an Adjudication Review Committee (ARC), which includes political party representatives and representatives of selected Civil Society Organizations. The ARC examines all cases of multiple registration flagged by the registration system. If the ARC confirms that a voter has indeed engaged in multiple registration, the voter is placed on the Multiple Registration List, barring them from voting.

Before the mop-up registration exercise and the exhibition of the provisional voters register in August 2024, the Commission received and processed applications from registered voters for the Transfer of Votes, Proxy Votes and Special Voting. Political parties were allowed to observe all these processes, despite initial violent events witnessed during the Transfer of Votes exercise which caused the Commission to temporarily suspend the decision to allow political parties to observe the exercise .

Exhibition of the Provisional Voters Register

The officers who register voters are human and can make mistakes when entering voter details. For example, there can be wrong spelling of names, age, sex and Registration Centre codes. One of the reasons for the Exhibition of the provisional voters register is to correct such errors. The Exhibition also allows voters to check that their name is in the register and that all their details are correct. Moreover, the exhibition allows voters to request for names of deceased persons to be removed from the register. It is important to note that a voter can still vote on Election Day as long as their voter identification number can be found in the polling station voters register, even if there is an error such as the wrong sex on their voter ID card.

It is also important to note that the Commission provides an opportunity during the exhibition period for voters to check online whether their name is in the voters register. Political parties and other stakeholders are allowed to observe the voters register exhibition exercise in the interest of transparency, even though Regulation 24 of Constitutional Instrument (C.I.) 91 only provides for the appointment and functions of an Exhibition Officer during the exercise.

Balloting for Positions

There are two rounds of balloting. For instance, if there are five candidates nominated for the election, the numbers 1 to 5 are printed on five sheets of paper and sealed. They are placed in a box without any markings on the outside. Another set of five sealed sheets of paper with the numbers 1 to 5 are placed in a second box.

First, the Commission ballots to decide the order in which candidates or their representatives will pick in the final balloting. If you pick Number 1 in the first balloting, you will be the first person to pick in the final balloting.

Once the first balloting is done, candidates pick from the second box in order from 1 to 5. The number that each person picks from the second box determines their position on the ballot paper.

This is a transparent process. The Commission does not determine the order in which candidates appear on the ballot paper.

Printing and Distribution of Ballot Papers

Ghana is one of the few countries that prints its ballot papers locally. Nigeria and Kenya do not print their ballot papers locally.

Below is the process of printing and distributing ballot papers for Ghana’s General Elections.

To ensure fairness, transparency, and accountability, political party representatives, the Police Service, and the National Intelligence Bureau observe the printing and preparing of ballot papers. All ballot papers have serial numbers, so ballot papers without these serial numbers are fake. The party agents maintain 24-hour observation of the printing and packing process. Immediately after printing and before packing, the political parties record the serial numbers of all ballot papers allocated to each region, district, and constituency. When the ballot papers are bagged, the Commission and each of the political parties place their seals on the bags, with the seals acting as padlocks.

When the ballots are ready for dispatch to the regional armouries, party agents follow the security vans to the armoury. From the regional armouries to the districts, constituencies, and polling stations on Election Day, each stage is closely monitored by political party agents and all other stakeholders.

At the beginning of voting, an empty transparent ballot box is shown to all stakeholders and placed in an open space for all to see that they do not contain ballot papers. At each polling station, there is full accounting for ballot papers used, which is signed by all political party agents. The total number of ballots at the beginning of voting is recorded. The total number of ballots issued to voters is recorded. The total number of ballots not issued by the close of voting is recorded. The total number of spoilt ballot papers is also recorded. At the end of voting, a sum total of the number of ballots not issued plus the total number of ballots issued to voters and spoilt ballots, will add up to the total number of ballots received and counted at the beginning of the voting process.

With this process, the Commission cannot print extra ballots. The Commission cannot also stuff extra ballots in ballot boxes at any polling stations because, as explained earlier, at the beginning of voting an empty ballot box must be shown to all stakeholders present, including agents of political parties, and placed in an open space. All stakeholders, particularly political party agents, ensure that only ballots from that ballot box are counted at the close of voting at the polling station, and the results for that polling station are announced in the presence of all stakeholders and the general public.

In Part Two, we will discuss what happens on Election Day. You don’t want to miss that!