[ 2014-09-22 ]

IEA calls review of EC's 'strong room' structure
Accra, Sept 21, GNA - The Institute of Economic
Affairs (IEA) Ghana, has urged the Electoral
Commission (EC) to abolish its ‘strong room’
system, where representatives of the contesting
political parties meet to verify election
results.

Dr. Ransford Gyampo, a Research Fellow of the
Governance Unit of the IEA, as part of the IEA’s
Electoral Reform Project, said the idea of a
‘strong room’ with very huge security presence
conjured negative and derogatory images that
undermined transparency and electoral peace.

He said, some people perceived the ‘strong
room’ as a place where election results from the
regions were cooked or manipulated in favour of a
political party and such perception undermined the
credibility of the Election Management Body.

Over the years, the EC has designated a section in
its headquarters as the “strong room” for the
collation of votes.

It also serves as the operations room of the EC
where provisional results are collated and
certified to indicate who has won an election.

It is in the ‘strong room’ that
representatives of the various political parties
receive confirmation of results from their agents
in the various voting centers before appending
their signatures.

However, Dr. Gyampo argued that democracy and
perception of opaqueness could not be bedfellows.

Therefore, it was in EC’s own interest to
abolish its “strong room” to shield itself
from unnecessary public attacks and to ensure
increased transparency in the vote collation and
authentication process.

“In place of a “strong room”, the IEA is
calling for the establishment of a National
Collation Centre, which would be open and
accessible to as many members of the political
parties, the media, Civil Society Organizations
and Election Observers as possible, but under
controlled security in order to enhance the
transparency of the national collation
exercise,” he said.

He said, a bigger venue that could accommodate
about 500 people was what was being recommended
and it should be possible for the work and
activities being undertaken at the proposed
National Collation Centre to be viewed live on the
national television by Ghanaians.

According to Dr. Gyampo, the IEA believed that the
conception of a ‘strong room’ with its rather
derogatory connotation was completely out of place
in the discourse on transparent elections.

“The National Collation Centre will not in any
way compromise the autonomy and independence of
the Electoral Commission, but it will rather boost
its image as a more credible and transparent body
as well as reduce the high perception of, and
sometimes, incidence of electoral fraud that have
characterised elections in Ghana and it is
imperative that the EC begins discussions on all
proposals for electoral reform now, “he said.

Source - GNA

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