Voter register must undergo independent audit to dispel doubts – Prof. Asare

Lawyer and CDD-Ghana fellow, Prof. Stephen Kwaku Asare, has urged the Electoral Commission (EC) to submit to an independent audit of the voter register, stressing that transparency is crucial in maintaining public trust.

Prof Asare, known commonly as Kweku Azar, in a Facebook post on Sunday afternoon argued that the secrecy breeds suspicion and undermines the legitimacy of the electoral process.

While praising Togo, whose electoral register has recently been audited by the International Organization of La Francophonie (OIF) and declared “reliable” ahead of the country’s upcoming legislative and regional elections, Prof. Asare stated that “all systems, certainly complex ones like an electoral system, must be subject to periodic independent audits.”

According to him, “the need for an audit is not something that should be politicized.”

He argued that an anti-audit Electoral Commission (EC) risks being seen as having something to hide.

“Rational people will assume that an anti-audit EC has something to hide,” Prof. Asare wrote on Facebook.

Prof. Asare emphasized that “it is in the interest of any EC to support an independent audit unless whatever the EC is hiding is worse than what rational people assume it’s hiding.”

He concluded by saying “there is the right way to do things and then there is the way we do it in Umuofia,” suggesting that Ghana’s EC should follow best practices and advocate for audits.

 

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