Re: ec needs public co-operation

the Party Agents in all the affected areas, whih agreed to adjourn, made the EC Officials put all the remaining materials in the ballot boxes and they all put their individual numbered seals on every possible point.. so the ballots will be safe over night.

It is a major cock up in my view because I know from business continuity and disaster recovery practice that if there is a one-off event like an election, you cannot allow certain contingencies from occurring in the first place. There should have been backups of the machines at every and each station.  There should also have been backup batteries, back up memory or storage cards. Thinking that there will be a certain probability of failure was not good enough an excuse to keep the back-ups at centralised locations especially if the logistics planning to replenish anguished centres was not going to be as smooth as I thought they will do.

It all boils down to planning, planning, then testing, testing.. indeed.. then simulation, simulation and I thought that lessons from the special voting day will have removed some element of complacency.

Bla Elik



At 08:43 PM 12/7/2012, Yaw B wrote:

Yes, Uncle, things could have gone better. Spent the morning in Agona Kwanyarko where things seem to have gone smoothly. One of the boys in my house just return, will have to go back tomorrow; E. Legon hasn't been as good.

On Friday, December 7, 2012, K wrote:

I just watched on Joy FM,  a beleaguered Electoral Officer at the Caprice polling station in Accra do his best to handle an almost impossible situation. He calmly explained to the teeming crowd that there were about 300 people who had not been able to vote today. He advised them to come back tomorrow Saturday and they would be able to vote. Meanwhile, the polling agents of the parties would accompany the police and the election officials to Kotobabi Police Station,  where the ballot papers would be kept overnight. The crowd protested but appeared to agree.

This appeared to be a pragmatic process and if it works, all fine and good. But there are too many difficulties possible. Suppose recalcitrant police officers try to prevent the polling agents from staying with the ballot  all night? When the polling agents are at the police station, would the police treat them with respect and not try to bugabuga them with instructions? Are the polling agents  equipped to stay at the police station all night? Equipped with feeding facilities, for instance? (Hygiene we might forget about -- it's only 24 hours, after all!)

In the final analysis, we have to conclude that the Electoral commission has been to stiff-necked about this election. It introduced a brand new electoral system; there were protests about the system's efficacy, which the EC ignored. The EC had the biometric registration to open its eyes to the possibility of its machines NOT working properly, but it doesn't appear to have taken any steps to forestall the massive failure of verification machiines, that has now occurred.

Did the EC bite more than it could chew by adding 45 constituencies, which no-one particularly wanted, to the tally? Common sense suggests that if trouble can occur in two constituencies, then trouble in four constituencies will be twice as difficult to handle, doesn't it?

Despite its failures, however, the EC needs public co-operation at this time, not blaming. The important thing is to manage the explosive situation as best as possible, so that the public will continue to have confidence in the electoral process. An analysis of what went wrong can be done afterwards, and those responsible for not anticipating and pre-empting the difficult situation duly  punished.

LET US HOPE THE NIGHT IS NOT QUITE AS DARK --FIGURATIVELY -- AS IT SEEMS.