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Head of Communications for the Electoral Commission (EC), Mr. Eric Kofi Dzakpasu has revealed that the idea of transmitting the 2016 election results electronically is part of the 27 operational administrative guidelines put up by Electoral Reform Committee.

According to him, after the 2012 election petition at the Supreme Court, the Electoral Reform Committee was set up to address challenges surrounding the electoral processes.

He however explained on Okay FM’s 'Ade Akye Abia' Morning Show that, the work of the Electoral Reform Committee is divided into two; one  being operational administrative, comprising 27 guidelines; the other has to do with legal issues which needs Parliamentary approval.

“EC has always followed due process and all the time, we are just making sure that we comply with the law. The electronic transmission of results is part of the works of the Electoral Reform Committee which are in two folds; we have the operational administrative work and the legal matters which need Parliamentary approval before implementing them,” he stated.

Mr. Dzakpasu insisted the idea of employing the service of a company through the procurement law to transmit the election results electronically is the right thing for the Electoral Commission to do.

Adding that, besides, the Electoral Commission alone did not decide on the electronic transmission of the election results as all the political activists serving on the IPAC, took part in the conclusion of using electronic means to transmit the election results.

“We are working within the law of procurement to get the company to handle the electronic transmission of the election results. We all agreed at IPAC meeting to use electronic means to transmit the results . . . there was a publication for the tender as the law of procurement requires and now we are doing evaluation and not selection of the company,” he asserted.

He stressed that “the contract has not been awarded; we are now going to do demonstrations by all the five companies and we will invite all the political parties and stakeholders to be present to see the demonstration before choosing one company to handle the business for Ghanaians.”

He maintained that the Electoral Commission (EC) has not sat down alone to decide that it is going to use electronic means to transmit results to the national level; adding that the results from the electronic transmission are not going to be mentioned unless they match with the results which were counted and signed by all party agents at the polling centres.

He however wondered why the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) ignored the IPAC meeting to address this concern rather than going to the media, stressing that EC is still at lost as it cannot pinpoint which process of the electronic transmission deal is not open to the NPP.