WE MESSED UP 2012 VOTE-EC

WE MESSED

UP 2012

VOTE-EC

By Mohammed Awal

Dr. Kwadwo Afari-Gyan

The Electoral Commission (EC) has admitted messing up the 2012 general elections, as a result of system failure and inept display by some of its staff, during the election.

According to the EC, its operations during the elections were characterized by various degrees of unpardonable irregularities, including failure to comply with basic operational instructions, technical and logistic challenges.

The Deputy Chairman of the EC, in-charge of operations, Mr. Amadu Sulley revealed this in his presentation at a Consultative Forum on Voter Registration, themed: ‘Deepening Public Confidence in Ghana’s Elections’ in Accra yesterday. 

His topic was: ‘Overview of Current Voters Register and the Challenges of the 2012 Voters Registration.’

“Some of the registration officials (Data Entry Clerks) failed to follow simple operational instructions. This resulted in technical problem. For instance instead of clicking ‘OK’ they were using enter ‘KEY’ to confirm an action.

“They also gave several print commands instead of one and then waiting for the system respond,” Mr. Sulley said.

After the Chairman of the EC, Dr. Kwadwo Afari-Gyan had declared President John Mahama as winner of the 2012 presidential election, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) led by Nana Akufo-Addo, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia and Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey proceeded to court on the basis that   there were massive irregularities and malpractices in almost 12,000 polling stations. 

The NPP said the party uncovered irregularities that not only favoured the NDC presidential candidate, John Mahama, but also some NDC parliamentary candidates in various parts of the country.
In the said petition, filed at the Supreme Court, the NPP prayed that: “John Dramani Mahama, the 2nd Respondent, herein was not validly elected president of the Republic of Ghana.
“That Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, the 1st Petitioner herein, rather was validly elected President of the Republic of Ghana.”
However, the Supreme Court ruled otherwise, thus affirming Afari Gyan’s declaration.

Mr. Amadu Sulley told his audience, which included representatives of the political parties, that the compilation of the voters’ register was fraught with operational, technical and logistical problems.

According to him, the Data Entry Clerks hired by the EC could not follow simple operational instructions, raising questions over their competence and the veracity of the final register used in the 2012 election.

The Data Entry Clerks, he said, had a hell of a difficulty “locating some districts”, adding that it would have been helpful if the software used was made in such a way that as soon as one clicked a region, all districts in that region would display, for the correct district to be selected.

Another problem the EC faced, he stated, was with the thumb printing of form 1A by applicants, saying that the Entry Clerks delayed the finger print capturing, especially those of applicants who did not wipe their thumbs with the wet swipes.

Amadu Sulley further revealed that the materials they deployed to the centres, that is, forms 1A and C could not meet the demand in phase 1.

This, he noted, was due to pressure, as registrants were not patient to wait for their turn in their centers. “There were also shortfalls on the hand held scanners,” he added.

The EC at the forum also took time to throw light on the legal framework binding its operations and the methodology adopted in operating and other relevant statistical information on the register.

The forum was attended by the representatives of all the major political parties, that is the New Patriotic Party (NPP), the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), the Convention People Party (CPP), the People National Convention (PNC) among others, including some Civil Society Organisations (CSOs).

Gov’t vows to tackle cybercrime

Gov’t vows to tackle cybercrime

By Mohammed Awal

The Government of Ghana has vowed to fight risks and threats that arise from rapidly increasing cyber threats, the Minister of Communications, Dr. Edward Omane Boamah revealed in Accra yesterday, during the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the government and the Commonwealth Cybercrime Initiative (CCI).

Dr Edward O. Boamah

He emphasised: “Addressing cybercrime is a challenging one,” since it differs from normal forms of crimes, saying that a National Cyber Security Strategy is in the offing to tackle these threats posed by cybercriminals.

According to him, no organization, government or business is safe from the risks associated with these crimes. 

In this regard, Dr. Boamah, therefore, urged all stakeholders, including Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) to contribute their quota in this effort.

Security experts define cybercrime as any crime that involves a computer and a network. The computer may have been used in the commission of a crime, or it may be the target.

Such crimes may threaten a nation’s security and financial health. Issues surrounding these types of crime have become high-profile, particularly those surrounding cracking, copyright infringement, child pornography and grooming.

The National Security Advisor to the President, William Aboah, therefore, called for a swift strategy that would ensure that cybercrimes are dealt with and dealt with effectively.

He warned that if cyberspace is allowed to become a domain of lawlessness and criminals, then it would pose a serious challenge to their quest to achieve financial growth.

He gave the government’s assurance to support the initiative saying the administration would go every length to tackle the menace. “The government will support this fight,” he accentuated.

“Cyber security is multi-dimensional and complex”, said the representative from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), Cecile Barayre-El Shami, adding that there was “no international framework and cooperation to address it.”

She, therefore, called for “more coordinated approaches among the various actors providing assistance” to deal with the problem.

On the role of the communications sector in preventing cybercrime, Professor Ian Walden said there should be “a rebuilding of relationship between service providers and investigative bodies” to ensure effective fighting of the danger.

New Sports law in the offing …to sanitize sports administration

New Sports law in the offing

…to sanitize sports administration

Byy Mohammed Awal
The Minister of Youth and Sports, Elvis Afriyie-Ankrah has revealed that as part of efforts to sanitize sports administration in the country, the ministry has initiated a move to enact a new National Sports Bill. If passed by Parliament, the new bill would replace the obsolete 1974 Sports Act (SMCD 54).

Elvis Afriyie-Ankrah

He said: "Sports administration in this country has witnessed a lot of controversies and challenges, primarily due to the absence of a comprehensive National Sports law." Mr. Afriyie-Ankrah made this disclosure in Accra yesterday, during a meet the press encounter.

The new law, he further stated, would be designed in such a way that would facilitate corporate sponsorship and would eventually help reduce “the heavy reliance on government for funding of sports activities.”

The law, he added, if passed by Parliament, would introduce and run sports lotteries, encourage the sourcing of sponsorship arrangements by sports administrators.

Anti-doping

 Mr. Afriyie Ankrah said the Ministry would establish a National Anti-doping office in the country, which would be housed at the Accra sports stadium.

The setting up of the agency, he explained, was part of efforts to promote “fair play” in sports in the country, and that it was also aimed at ensuring compliance to the world’s anti-doping code.

The initiative, he disclosed, would be rolled out in line with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s (UNESCO) International Convention against Anti-doping in sports, with support from the World Anti-doping Agency.

The mandate of the anti-doping agency, he noted, would be to set up Anti-doping tribunal that would prosecute doping related cases.

It would also ensure the dissemination of the World Anti-doping agency code to all sports stakeholders in the country

NYA to support gov’t employ more youth

NYA to support gov’t employ more youth

By Mohammed Awal

Ras Mubarak

The National Co-Ordinator of the National Youth Authority (NYA), Ras Mubarak, has disclosed that the authority would soon roll out "the youth entrepreneurship competition" to help absorb some of the challenges the government is grappling with in giving the youth employment.

According to him, the Authority would invite proposals or bids from the youth, after which an independent team would be established to screen these proposals and select the best five, among the lot.

The five best proposals would be given a seed capital of GH¢100, 000 to materialize their vision. According to him, in view of the souring nature of youth unemployment, one of the surest ways to reduce unemployment would be to "encourage a lot of the youth to start their own businesses."

Mr. Mubarak divulged this to the media in Accra, on Tuesday, this week, at a conference to officially re-launch the NYA's website. He noted that as a facilitating agency, they should be seen at the forefront helping the youth to achieve their dreams.

Mr. Mubarak told The Chronicle in an interview that the competition would be launched in September this year and that the winners announced in December, same year.

Bedrock of development

The youth, he stated, are the "bedrock of the country's development" and that they should be engaged productively. Failure to harness their talent and energies towards productivity, he noted, could spell doom for the country's peace.

"If this young people are not engaged, it will pose a threat to our very democracy and that is why we should all become stakeholders in making sure that we help build the youth of our country."

He, therefore, appealed to the banks and government to fashion out a way where they could guarantee loans for these start-up businesses so that the youth could venture into entrepreneurship.

International time- bomb

Rising youth unemployment is one of the deepest economic and social problems facing economies the world over. The phenomena is increasingly considered an ‘international time-bomb’ for both developed and developing nations alike.

Youth unemployment, as at 2013, stands at over 75 million people worldwide. And the youth are three times more likely to be unemployed than adults, data from the International Labour Organisation (ILO) said.

The ILO further noted that of all the determinants of unemployment over the past three years, age has been the most significant – more than geography, education level and gender.
It again indicated that in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, the high employment-to-population ratios of youth in the poorest regions show far more young people stuck in circumstances of working poverty than are without work or looking for work.
Ghana has no comprehensive statistics on its labour market. Many experts say this situation has hampered the accurate assessment of the labour market while government’s policies and programmes directed at improving the labour force in the country have not yielded the expected results.