The Electoral Commission (EC) is preparing to review Constitutional Instrument 127 (CI 127), which regulates the conduct of Ghana’s general elections, as part of measures to strengthen the transmission, management and protection of election results in future elections.
The Commission also plans to introduce a dedicated electronic portal through which scanned copies of polling station results can be transmitted to enhance the security, accessibility and management of election documents.
The EC’s Director of Electoral Services, Samuel Dottoh Kwaah, disclosed this at an inter-party dialogue organised by the National Peace Council in Accra on Tuesday, August 11, 2026.
He said the proposed reforms were informed by challenges experienced during the 2024 general elections, particularly disruptions at collation centres and the absence of a dedicated platform for the secure transmission of scanned results.
According to Mr Kwaah, the Commission believes that strengthening the procedures for transmitting results will help address some of the vulnerabilities identified during the previous election and provide a more efficient system for managing results.
Dedicated portal for scanned results
Mr Kwaah said the Commission intended to establish a dedicated portal to receive scanned copies of results, allowing the documents generated at polling stations to be transmitted electronically while retaining the physical originals.
“There’s a need to address some of the challenges from now on. In addressing some of these challenges, we have to come out with certain policies and plans to ensure that we don’t entertain what happened in 2024,” he said.
He explained that one of the areas requiring attention was the management of ballot papers and result forms during the movement of election materials from polling stations to collation centres.
He said the absence of a portal for transmitting scanned results had meant that the physical documents remained the primary means through which results could be managed during the collation process.
“The first thing will start from the collation centres on the way and manner people disrupt ballot papers and result forms because at that time we didn’t have a portal where the scanned results could be sent,” he said.
Under the proposed system, scanned copies of results would be transmitted to a dedicated platform, creating an electronic record that could support the Commission’s results-management processes.
Physical results to remain
Despite plans to strengthen electronic transmission, Mr Kwaah stressed that the EC would not abandon the physical results generated through the existing electoral process.
“The physical results will be maintained,” he said.
The approach would therefore combine the existing physical documentation system with electronic transmission, rather than replace the original result forms entirely.
The retention of physical results is expected to preserve the documentary basis of the electoral process while the electronic portal provides an additional layer for transmitting and managing copies of results.
The proposal is also expected to require corresponding changes to the legal framework governing elections.
CI 127 review to follow
Mr Kwaah said the introduction of the dedicated portal would require a review of CI 127 to ensure that the legal framework reflects the new arrangements for results transmission and management.
“Going forward, the Commission plans to ensure that scanned results will be sent to a dedicated portal. When that happens, there’s a need to review C.I. 127, which regulates the conduct of general elections,” he said.
He explained that the Commission would engage political parties after completing its internal review and invite them to submit their views on the proposed changes.
“We’ll invite the political parties to come up with their inputs once the Commission has finalised the review of the C.I.,” he added.
The proposed consultation could provide political parties with an opportunity to scrutinise the planned changes and make recommendations before the revised instrument is finalised.
Lessons from 2024
The proposed reforms come against the backdrop of disputes and operational difficulties that characterised parts of the 2024 electoral process, particularly at some collation centres.
The EC’s decision to consider a dedicated results-transmission platform signals an attempt to strengthen the chain of custody of election results and provide an additional mechanism for preserving result forms generated at polling stations.
A system that allows scanned copies of results to be transmitted and stored electronically could also provide the Commission with an additional reference point during collation and verification.
However, the effectiveness of such a system would depend on the integrity of the platform, access controls, cybersecurity safeguards, connectivity and clearly defined procedures governing who can transmit, receive, verify and access the scanned documents.
The review of CI 127 will therefore be critical in determining how the proposed electronic transmission mechanism fits into the broader legal and administrative framework for elections.
The EC’s engagement with political parties is expected to be particularly important because the credibility of any new results-management system will depend not only on its technical functionality but also on stakeholder confidence in the procedures governing its operation.
For the Commission, the objective is to ensure that lessons from the 2024 election are incorporated into future electoral arrangements while maintaining the physical documentation that remains central to the verification of results.
The proposed review of CI 127 and the dedicated portal consequently represent potentially significant changes to the way election results are transmitted and managed, although the precise procedures will only become clear after the Commission completes its review and consults political parties and other stakeholders.
