The public has been reassured by Dr Joe Anokye, Director-General of the National Communications Authority (NCA), that possible internet outages won’t jeopardize the integrity of the polls on December 7.
Rather than blaming any specific person for the disruptions, he attributed them to natural causes. The government does not intend to meddle in the electoral process, Dr. Anokye emphasized.
He said that he was confident in the Electoral Commission’s (EC) independence and that they function without interference from politics.
Dr Anokye pleaded with Ghanaians to believe their government’s commitment to maintaining electoral fairness and to disregard any claims to the contrary.
“That is untrue if you know how elections operate. I think an EC official addressed this on election day; everything they do is done by hand. Therefore, that is untrue, and the government will not act in that manner”.
Additionally, Dr Anokye shed light on the challenges faced in determining the reason behind recent disruptions in submerged fibre optic cables, which are essential for Ghana’s internet connectivity.
He explained that pinpointing the precise source of the cuts is extremely difficult due to the large distances separating the four subsea cables.
“One of these four cables in Ivory Coast, Cote D’Ivoire, is called Ace. That one is nearer. It’s roughly 118 kilometers. Roughly 11 kilometres are separating that cable from the next cable. To put that in perspective, 11 kilometres is the distance between the general post office and Accra Mall.
“That cable, SAT-3, and the next cable, the main one, is supposed to be separated by around 67 kilometres, or the distance between Accra Mall and Suhum. And there was a compromise for all 3. 77 kilometres separating WACS and Main One. Suhum to Nkawkaw is this. Thus, it is quite challenging to pinpoint the precise event that occurred,” he said.
He was addressing allegations of government intentions to disrupt internet services on December 7.
