Ghana Electoral Commission Seeks Legal Backing for Electronic Election Result Backups

Ghana's Electoral Commission (EC) is seeking legal authority to electronically store scanned copies of polling station results. This move comes after physical result sheets were disrupted and destroyed at some collation centers during the 2024 general election, creating a critical gap in the electoral process.

Director of Electoral Services, Mr. Samuel Dottoh Kwaah, explained that the current Constitutional Instrument (C.I.) 127 does not provide for the transmission or use of scanned results as evidence. The proposed amendment would allow scanned copies to serve as a secure electronic backup, complementing the primary legal record of physical sheets.

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The physical results will still be maintained. This is only an administrative measure to ensure that if there is any challenge, we can resort to the scanned results.

Kwaah emphasized that this is an administrative measure to safeguard election records, not a step towards electronic voting. He noted that Ghana currently lacks the nationwide technological infrastructure for such a system, though the EC remains open to exploring it in the future. The EC also highlighted concerns about the lack of prosecutions for electoral offenses, urging security agencies to investigate and deter future violence to protect election integrity.

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The current C.I. 127 did not provide for the transmission or use of scanned copies of polling-station results as evidence, making an amendment necessary to give the proposed system legal backing.