Professor Stephen Kwaku Asare, widely known as Kwaku Azar, has argued that periodic auditing of complex systems such as Ghana’s Voters’ Register is a desirable thing to do and ought not to be politicized, calling on the Electoral Commission (EC) to accept the request for a forensic audit of the Voters’ Register.
He explained that the Electoral Commission of Ghana must subject the Voters’ Register to an independent forensic audit so as to dispel perceptions that it has something to hide, asserting that it is only rational for people to assume that the EC has something untoward going on if it rejects the request for an audit.
“The need for an audit is not something that should be politicized. All systems, certainly complex ones like an electoral system, must be subject to periodic independent audits.
Since rational people will assume that an anti-audit EC has something to hide, it is in the interest of any EC to support an independent audit unless whatever the EC is hiding is worse than what rational people assume it’s hiding,” Prof Azar argued.
It is his contention that the EC should be at the forefront of advocating for a forensic audit, notwithstanding the politicisation of the need for audits or otherwise by politicians.
“…Even if short-term oriented politicians seek to politicize the need for audits, the EC itself should not participate in such politics and should, at all times, advocate for audits,” he asserted.
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