Verification not full-proof to electoral violence- Ben Ephson

The Managing Editor of the Daily Dispatch, Ben Ephson, has ruled out the importance of a verification system as a measure to check vote rigging and violence in election 2012.

According to him, neither the biometric registration nor the electronic verification can eliminate the violence and the multiplicity of voting that have characterized the national elections.

He called for the abrogation of the biometric system of voting suggesting that the money and resources that would be used to instigate the biometric registration could be channeled differently to ensure peace in 2012.

He disclosed to Xfm 95.1 this Friday that even with the biometric registration, there is still the possibility of a person fiddling with the election figures which could equally spell doom for the nation and also advocated that the only option that the 2012 general elections can be free from violence and rigging is when all the stakeholders are vigilant.

He explained that the 30 million cedis estimated for the biometric voting system could be split to employ more hands to assist the Electoral Commission (EC) during the general elections.

"Given the controversy between the two main parties, I belong to the school of thought that we can do away with biometric and verification and we can use a third of that money to do what biometric and verification will do for us. To prevent multiple voter registration, we can quadruple the number of people Electoral Commission hire and then we do one day voter registration throughout the country. That will eliminate voter simplicity or multiple voting.", he opined.

Expanding further, Ben Ephson said that with excessive number of polling agents and supervisors at the various constituencies, people will be deterred from voting twice which would clear off the distortions in the elections.

Speaking to host Sekou Nkrumah on "Let's talk politics", Ben Ephson outlined that the electoral violence and turmoil that emerge as a result of rigging or cheating could be avoided by having enough trained polling personnel by the EC who would not countenance any foul attempts during the elections.

He proposed that the Electoral Commission should employ the services of foreign observers who would keep an eagle eye on every polling site at the constituencies. He said monitoring of activities at the polling stations by the polling agents as well as the political parties is a significant measure to curb any incident of violence in 2012.

He however vouched for the verification system saying it is the only way to avert multiple voting if the Electoral Commission still goes by the biometric voter registration but would not stick his neck to say that any of these newly-adopted methods would abort the totality of violence in the elections.

In his view, EC should find a common ground to address the rivalry between the opposition NPP and the ruling NDC over the biometric registration.

Alluding to the politics of insults and the sudden acrimony between some members of NPP and NDC, Ben Ephson called on both parties to be decorous in their speech and also implored the media to ensure that those who use it as platform to channel their misgivings and information do so in a constructive manner.

He besought the political parties from perpetrating any act of violence in 2012 revealing that though the tension during the elections in 2000 was highly heightened, the then government under the leadership of the former President, J.J Rawlings, handed over the Presidential mantle peacefully to the NPP.


Story by Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Xfm 95.1/Accra/Ghana