The Electoral Commission has debunked claims by the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) that the Commission has directed its officials to deactivate the Biometric Verification Devices (BVDs) less than a month after 2020 general elections.
According to the Commission, the allegation is false.
“The Commission has carefully preserved and safeguarded all electronic and physical records and data relating to the 2020 Presidential and Parliamentary Elections,” portion of the commission’s statement read.
“It is also instructive to note that the BVDs were only ACTIVATED prior to their use for the Elections as a safeguard to ensure that no one was verified before the start of Polls. Similarly, at the close of Polls, the BVDs were DEACTIVATED to prevent any potential mischief of persons being verified after the close of Polls.
The process of deactivation is therefore meant to preserve the sanctity of the verification data on the BVD and DOES NOT delete it. As a matter of fact, several copies of the verification data are kept on the BVD,” the statement added.
The commission reassures the General Public that all data generated before, during and after the Election has been preserved and will be made available to any interested party in a transparent manner when requested through the laid down process.
Yesterday, hundreds of supporters of the NDC stormed the Commission’s head office demanding that the commission declare John Mahama as the President-elect.
They were dressed in red and black attire, wielding sticks, and placards with various inscriptions on them.
This comes after the EC declared the incumbent President, Nana Akufo-Addo the winner in the December 7 polls.
John Mahama lost to the incumbent and NPP Presidential candidate Nana Akufo-Addo by a difference of 517,231 votes.
Mr Mahama polled 47.30% against the declared winner’s 51.30%, a percentage difference of about 4%.
Below is the full statement.
The Electoral Commission has noted allegations by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) purporting that the Commission’s directive to deactivate the Biometric Verification Devices (BVDs) constitutes an illegality as deactivation would destroy evidence related to verified voters for the 2020 Presidential and Parliamentary Elections.
The Electoral Commission categorically states that these assertions are FALSE.
The Commission has carefully preserved and safeguarded all electronic and physical records and data relating to the 2020 Presidential and Parliamentary Elections.
It is also instructive to note that the BVDs were only ACTIVATED prior to their use for the Elections as a safeguard to ensure that no one was verified before the start of Polls. Similarly, at the close of Polls, the BVDs were DEACTIVATED to prevent any potential mischief of persons being verified after the close of Polls.
The process of deactivation is therefore meant to preserve the sanctity of the verification data on the BVD and DOES NOT delete it. As a matter of fact, several copies of the verification data are kept on the BVD.
This was demonstrated during an Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC) meeting held on Wednesday, 2nd December 2020. The meeting was attended by representatives of the Political Parties including Mr. Peter Boamah Otokunor (Deputy General Secretary) and Mr. Daniel Amartey (Deputy Director, Elections) of the NDC, Civil Society Organisations and Development Partners. The demonstration of the BVD was prompted by a similar allegation by the NDC that the deactivation of BVDs would result in the loss of data.
It is therefore unfortunate that the NDC would continue to make such misleading allegations.
We reassure the General Public that all data generated before, during and after the Election has been preserved and will be made available to any interested party in a transparent manner when requested through the laid down process.
