Asare Otchere-Darko, stop being an alarmist

The executive Director of Danquah Institute, Mr. Asare Otchre-Darko, recent press release calling for seminar next year to consider the “viability of E-Voting” in 2012 election was premature.

His article, paper as he calls it, is full of holes and out right lies. First Ghana did not come close “to the kind of election break-down and violence we saw in Kenya and Zimbabwe” as Mr. Otchere-Darko claims in his paper. That is a complete fabrication and should not come from so called policy think thank institute. There was a clear denial of winners both in Kenya and Zimbabwe elections but that was not the case in 2008 election in Ghana.

I hope Mr. Otchere-Darko does not come from NPP camp who believes that 2008 election was stolen from Nana Akuffo Addo. Nana lost the election because he was a flaw candidate and ran a very bad campaign. No one can ever become a president of Ghana by winning just three regions out of ten no matter how you inflate the number of voters from these three regions. It is not out of bounds for a country with a population of about 23 million to have 10 million voting age. That is less than 45% of the total population. I do not know what Mr. Otchere-Darko wants to see. May be 20% or less? Over 50% India population have reached voting age.

Mr. Otchere-Darko assertion that “Ghana can be a war zone in 2012” if E-voting is not adopted is baseless and an exaggeration. E-voting could not have prevented his alleged voting irregularities that occurred in 2008. In his lengthy paper, Mr. Otchere-Darko fails to mention how implementation of E-voting in 2012 election will prevent his dooms day scenario.

Major problems in our electoral system are voter fraud due largely to under age voting, voter intimidation and lack of transparency but E-voting cannot deter any of these problems.

The reason the developed countries have been slow to fully embrace E-voting is its inherent problems. But in his infatuation with E-voting, as if it is the solution to our electoral system ills, Mr.Otchere-Darko fails to mention even one problem in E-voting.

Yes E-voting may increase voters’ turn-out, saves paper, enhance voter independency and speed up counting of votes but its reliability, accuracy and transparency is debatable.

Early this year, Finland high court had to reject election results due to defective E-voting election results. According to investigation, it was found out that at least 2% of votes were not counted by the electronic voting machine. Irish government decided this year to reject introduction of E-machines because of concern about cost, accuracy and reliability.

The India voting machine Mr. Otchere-Darko keeps on mentioning in his paper is too vulnerable to fraud. First the machine is not networked so votes cast are not recorded instantly at the electoral commissioner office or any central location. The electoral commissioner has to carry the voting machines to each polling station and each vote cast is recorded only at the polling stations but the results can only be tallied at the electoral commissioner’s office or any central location. So what happens if some of these machines get lost on their way to the electoral commission office to be counted? How are we going to have confidence in the tallied results by electoral commissioner? What can we compare the tallied results with?

We do need electronic voting at some point but not at the speed in which Mr.Otchere-Darko wants it to happen. In fact, we should not put our democracy in the hands of some electronic voting machine vendors.

There seem to be orchestration by some Nana Akuffo Addo loyalists to win 2012 election at any cost and any defeat that does not meet their standard of free and fair election will be considered as a fraud.

Even though NPP is yet to elect our presidential candidate, people like Otchere Darko have already presumed Nana Akuffo as NPP presidential candidate in 2012 and have started intimidating their opponents and NPP members they consider not likely to support Nana Akuffo Addo. His claim that” Ghana can be in a war zone in 2012” is just an intimidation.

Now they are all over Dr. Arthur Kennedy, Mr. Kwame Mpianim, Mr. Felex Owusu Adjapong and others for speaking out what actually happened in 2008 election. In fact there are some truths to what these party members are saying. We still remember Ghanaian musicians all over Nana Akuffo Addo during the 2008 campaign. After chastising Mr. Owusu Adjapong for saying “drumming and dancing caused our defeat”, Mr. Otchere-Darko admitted that there were four concerts named “Believe In Ghana” held in four regions. According to Mr.Otchere-Darko, these concerts were organized to attract the youth into the party. I am sorry to say that you do not attract youth into the party by organizing concerts for them. You have to present coherent policies that will benefit them.

I will urge Mr. Otchere-Darko and the rest of Nana Akuffo Addo loyalists to take all the criticisms coming from the members within the party seriously and make sure they are not repeated in 2012 should Nana Akuffo Addo becomes NPP presidential candidate again. You should find a way of uniting the party instead dividing us. What is going on at local level elections is deepening the disunity.

Thanks

Kwaku Poku

[email protected]

Alexandria, Virginia, USA