The Electoral Commission (EC) has assured that the 2020 election data is safe and will be preserved contrary to an allegation that the commission was deleting data.
In a press statement issued Friday, December 18, 2020, the EC said it has noted allegations by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) purporting that the Commission’s directive to deactivate the Biometric Verification Devices (BVDs) constitutes an illegality as deactivation would destroy evidence related to verified voters for the 2020 Presidential and Parliamentary Elections.
“The Electoral Commission categorically states that these assertions are FALSE,” it said.
“The Commission has carefully preserved and safeguarded all electronic and physical records and data relating to the 2020 Presidential and Parliamentary Elections,” it added.
The EC explained that it was instructive to note that the BVDs were only ACTIVATED prior to their use for the Elections as a safeguard to ensure that no one was verified before the start of Polls.
“Similarly, at the close of Polls, the BVDs were DEACTIVATED to prevent any potential mischief of persons being verified after the close of Polls.”
It said the process of deactivation is therefore meant to preserve the sanctity of the verification data on the BVD and DOES NOT delete it. As a matter of fact, several copies of the verification data are kept on the BVD.
This was demonstrated during an Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC) meeting held on Wednesday, 2nd December, 2020. The meeting was attended by representatives of the Political Parties including Mr. Peter Boamah Otokunor (Deputy General Secretary) and Mr. Daniel Amartey (Deputy Director, Elections) of the NDC, Civil Society Organisations and Development Partners.
The EC said the demonstration of the BVD was prompted by a similar allegation by the NDC that the deactivation of BVDs would result in the loss of data.
“It is therefore unfortunate that the NDC would continue to make such misleading,” it added.
allegations.
We reassure the General Public that all data generated before, during and after the
Election has been pres
