Claim: EC ‘s Voter transfer process in Ghana has never lasted beyond a week
Source: Alhassan Sayibu Suhuyini
Verdict: FALSE
Researched by Sedem Kwasigah
The Member of Parliament for Tamale North Constituency claims Ghana is seeing for the first time a voter transfer exercise by the Electoral Commission that has gone beyond a week.
According to Alhassan Sayibu Suhuyini , the ongoing development is contributing to the mistrust in the election management body ahead of the 2024 elections.
Speaking on Good Morning Ghana on Metro TV, on June 4, the Member of Parliament said; “All of a sudden, from the proposed 2 days for transfers, it was increased to 16 days. Two days to 16 days. That is the first in my view, that is the first point of mistrust because I know NPP candidates that are even engaged who protested against the two days. This is the first time transfers are going beyond a week. Yes, this is the first time. Why do we need that many [16] days?” (Between 1:27:38-1:28:12).
Background
The Electoral Commission began the transfer of votes, application for proxy voting and replacement or lost or damaged voter ID cards on May 30, 2024 and is scheduled to end on June 14, 2024.
The voter transfer exercise comes immediately after the nationwide registration exercise opened to citizens who turned 18 and those who have never registered for the voter ID card.
Fact-Check
To fact-check this claim GhanaFact collected data from the Electoral Commission and news publications from local media organisations.
The research shows that in the last general elections in 2020, the voter transfer period was scheduled for one week from October 20 to October 26, 2020.
However, GhanaFact’s investigations found that in 2016, the voter transfer timetable published on the Electoral Commission’s Facebook page was for 4 weeks, from September 9, 2016, to October 7, 2016, contrary to the claim made by the member of Parliament for Tamale North. The transfer of vote exercise was published by some media houses (here, here and here).
A screenshot of a post by the EC on Facebook announcing a calendar for the voter transfer exercise in 2016
Also, in 2012, news archives (here, here and here) show that the period of vote transfer was three weeks, which occurred from October 1 to October 20, 2012.
GhanaFact reached out to the Member of Parliament for Tamale North Constituency, Alhassan Sayibu Suhuyini about our findings and he responded via a text message; “Noted. Tnx (Thanks) for checking and reaching out.”
