A professor at the University of Florida has said Ghana must think twice and find other ways of cleaning the voter register since that is one of the surest ways to ensure a credible election.
He submits that biometric registration and verification which have become a contentious issue, especially among the leading political parties in Ghana, is not the ultimate. Prof. Daniel Smith, who is also a Research Associate at the Ghana Centre for Democratic Governance (CDD-Ghana), argues that going biometric actually does nothing to prevent electoral malfeasance since it only identifies voters, but cannot solve problems associated with voting.
He adds, "Fraud will not change in biometric registration with all respect. What is necessary is training agents to be vigilant. In many ways, the machine makes even more technical problems and polling agents can still be there."
"It is important to understand that the use of biometric technology will not solve all voter registration challenges. For example, biometrics cannot detect the inclusion of foreign nationals (people from neighbouring countries) or the inclusion of underage voters in the voters' roll. By the same token, biometrics cannot assist in identifying and deleting deceased persons from the database."
He described as misplaced efforts being made to resource the Electoral Commission (EC) to replicate what the National Identification Authority (NIA) has done, saying that a fraction of that money could be used to purchase indelible Indian ink that cannot be washed off.
"Am wondering why the EC cannot reach out to the NIA for their database since that was also biometric involving the use of the thumb."
"I have travelled around the sub region and Ghana seems proud. If Nigeria has it, it means that Ghana has to have it. So far South Africa said they could go biometric but they could not. Even in Florida in USA in 2004 during presidential election, citizens groups called for a manual recount of ballots, but because of computer problems, all voting records from several districts were missing."
Prof. Smith hoped the debates would shift to the real merits of the biometric system.
He was speaking at a roundtable discussion in Accra organised by the CDD under the theme, "Public Opinion Polls in Ghana: Credibility Issues, Politics, Challenges and Prospects."
He spoke on the topic, "Assessing the Credibility of Public Opinion Polls."
The Executive Director of the CDD and Afrobarometer, Prof. Gyimah-Boadi, noted political opinion polling has a checkered history in post-independence Ghana and continued to be so today.
He recalled that the round 3 (2005) and 4 (2008) of the Afrobarometer surveys came out with war stories which were subjected to trenchant attacks by the then opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), which treated the study as some form of pro-New Patriotic Party post and pre-election surveys.
Perhaps, he said, all of these were understandable in a country in which traditionally, levels of interest in party politics have been extremely high, particularly in the Fourth Republic where political competition was so intense.
"Politicians, holders and seekers of political power, media pundits and think tanks, for better or for worse, are major opinion makers in Ghana today. They must understand that professionally conducted opinion polling is an enterprise that is vital for injecting the voice of the people in policy making, implementation and evaluation.
"Those politicians and pundits who are motivated to make loud, but ill-informed and innumerate comments on poll figures, those who commission bogus surveys, as well as those who undertake a poll from a purely partisan vantage or material gain inflict needless harm on this nascent industry."
The Executive Director added that wittingly or unwittingly, their actions and utterances created an erroneous impression in the minds of the public that all opinion polls were bogus. Admittedly, he stated, there was no doubt that some so-called public opinion polls in Ghana were bogus.
"We must by all means interrogate the integrity of opinion polls results and / or any statistical data, especially, where they claim to be scientifically objective. Indeed, it is healthy in and of itself. It can help improve general appreciation and knowledge of a branch of social science that is poorly developed in Ghana and help increase its usage."
He, however, said that unbiased research on public opinion was important; without which anyone could claimed that their views and opinions represented those of "the people" and could say their own ideas about Ghanaian attitudes / preferences/ dislikes as the gospel truth.
"Most important, we believe that there are proven ways of doing credible opinion polling, interpreting and interrogating and utilising it appropriately. ....Our experience with Afrobarometer surveys in 20 countries so far and 35 from the current round (5) indicate that multilateral and bilateral development agencies, some smart African governments and now the Mo Ibrahim Foundation do recognise the value of well done scientific opinion surveys such as the Afrobarometer and are willing to invest heavily in it."
Pollster and Editor of the Daily Dispatch, Mr. Ben Ephson, shared his experiences, challenges and prospects of conducting public opinion polls in Ghana.
He pointed out that majority of Ghanaians vote on ethnic lines, but in 2008 some people did not want to vote for President Atta Mills because of personality concerns they had about him.
"On the same grounds of personality, however, some people voted. Therefore the issue of personality voting increased while partisanship decreased."
He advised his fellow media practitioners to be careful of their publications of opinion polls since they have a great impact on their audience' decisions to vote.
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