Voter registration exercise: How can Ghanaians have confidence in you when you can't do simple calculations? — Kwesi Pratt 'descends' on EC

Kwesi Pratt Jnr., the Managing Editor of the Insight Newspaper, has vehemently criticised the Electoral Commission (EC) for its inability to accurately calculate and report registration figures during the ongoing Limited Voter Registration Exercise.

Mr. Pratt's remarks come in reaction to the EC's acknowledgement of errors in the total number of voters registered so far in the ongoing nationwide exercise.

The EC, responsible for overseeing the voter registration process, admitted discrepancies in the figures reported for the total number of registered persons on day 2 and 3 of the exercise across all sixteen regions of Ghana.

A press release issued by the commission on May 12, 2024 confirmed the correction of the errors, attributing them to inaccuracies in collating cumulative totals for specific days.

The EC assured the public that the anomalies had been addressed.

The EC’s statement read, “The Electoral Commission has corrected errors in the previously released daily voter registration numbers.

“The inaccuracies were in the cumulative totals for days two and three, though the regional numbers were correct. The Upper East’s day three's total was mistakenly repeated for day four. These have been amended.”

However, Kwesi Pratt, speaking on Peace FM's "Kokrokoo" morning show, expressed disbelief at the EC's admission of errors in basic arithmetic.

“Is the Electoral Commission saying that they cannot do simple addition. A whole electoral body like the Electoral Commission cannot do a simple addition. How can Ghanaians repose confidence in you?

“This is just a registration exercise which has been characterised by abysmal happenings. What then will they do about the general elections when it is held?

"These errors in the results by the Electoral Commission, how do you explain it? We’ve gone to register names. We have the tallies - simple addition, the Electoral Commission cannot do it…I can’t understand this… a whole Electoral Commission cannot do addition. There is no subtraction, division or multiplication and you can’t do this,” he expressed.