Whether discussed at a previous IPAC meeting or not, revealing circumstances have emerged, that put both the Ghana Elections Commissioner, and the institution she heads in a clear position of distrust, for them to be entrusted with any form of electronic transmission of votes in the 2016 Presidential elections. Further in depth enquiries from technology experts have revealed that the system has not the perfection, and anti – interception qualities that it has been erroneously portrayed to have.
In a face to face friendly chat with a UK technology expert in one of the topmost security industries, Mr Tim Walters, and subsequently on phone with a Ghanaian technology expert in the Netherlands, the following issue emerged, that they claim, can make the system highly criborous. They both state that, there’s no system in computers that is foolproof. Asked what about scanned documents in pdf, Mr Walters smiled sarcastically and interjected, a pdf editor in a computer makes it easy to alter anything. Even signatures can be copied and pasted on an identical cop. that makes the copied document look exactly like the original. I further asked about intercepting emails, then similarly, he looked at me like a strange idiot and quipped, “have you ever heard of hackers”? Then I nodded, and with a continuing noddling. Even if not unknown hackers, he stated, it can be someone somewhere with a password made available to, for an intended interception, so, it is simple and easy, so therefore nothing is airtight in computing. Though at different locations, and in a discourse with me at different times, both Mr Walters, and our own brother in the Netherlands stated emphatically that these are the reason why banks, financial institutions, the stock market, phone, and computer industries, etc, are always on high alert with specialist equipment 24/7, to detect and safeguard against hacking and interceptions
On various methods of input, either manually or scanned, both Mr Walters and my Ghanaian compatriot in the Netherlands congree that there’s a high tendency of either method being able to be manipulated by adding or subtracting figures, and can be done either manually or automatically.
These were my areas of interest with Mr Walters, my English man friend in our friendly chat, right in his office, and because I didn’t want to go further to break the principles of protocol of his official business capacity.
With my Ghanaian Dutch technology expert, whom I later spoke on phone, he demonstrated so much candid openness and concern for all the on-going events in Ghana, as our discussion furthered and advanced, with the following questions:
● Which company is the EC contracting to do the transmission?
● What is the percentage of transparency in the award of the contract?
● What is/are the contractors’ track records and experience in this field of transmission of election results? Are they tried and tested?
● How will the data be captured for transmission? If by manual input, how does the EC assure accuracy?
● What method will the transmission take? Will it be by radio, wireless, VHF (Very High Frequency,) IP (Internet Protocol,) etc, and how secure can it be from interferences and hackers?
● How do the parties ensure that any, or some of the transmitted results are not altered or compromised?
● What will be the cost of the transmission, and why this particular option?
●★★ If the EC intends to transmit electronically, whiles the IGP threatens to block national network, by what means will the political parties crosscheck, and collate their results?
● What about if there’s power outage from any of the transmission points?
He opines that this is where a chamber would be created for rigging, especially, with a bloated register, coupled with unknown additionally created polling stations. Our compatriot in the Netherlands is concerned about a possible coup d’etat style of holding the people of Ghana, and the Presidential elections results hostage, whiles the NDC and the EC manipulate the polls to favour the incumbent President, because they will be the only personalities to have access to communication. The suggested electronic transmission of results is therefore seen as a perfect recipe for rigging, and must not be entertained. If the NPP agrees to this electronic transmission, we would be signing our death warrant, and we should as well declare John Mahama and the NDC as winners, even before we go to the polls. This patriot enjoins the NPP as a Party, with its leadership, to petition the United Nations, and ask for smartmatic.com, an accredited elections organisation, to take the whole elections up, for lack of trust in the EC, and most especially, the commissioner herself.