Is it still fashionable to play dumb with tech?

The beginnings of innovation elicit a fairly typical response from incumbents: denial, ridicule, reluctant acceptance, and then, regret of former folly--this is my theory.

Many Ghanaian institutions appear to be at the denial and ridicule stages with regard to their attitudes towards new ways of doing things. I was at the Electoral Commission (EC) about two months ago when a conversation about the publication of election results transpired. An official of the EC tried to convince me of the reason why they don't publish election results in machine readable formats: "We are afraid people will distort them," she said. Even though I considered the excuse bogus, I let it pass because I figured there must be other reasons she wasn't willing to disclose.

It was not until I heard they had given a similar excuse to someone who wanted to interview an official that I was prompted to question their real motives. According to an official from Ghana Decides, the Electoral Commissioner is refusing to give interrviews because he is afraid people will distort what he says. I find it preposterous that they would unilaterally decide to ward off all communication because of fear of what somebody may make of their remarks or data. How could somebody distort data from the EC and succeed in presenting it as credible? Is the hoarding of information the solution to this problem?

The solution to the supposed problem they are trying to avert is to flood the system with information. Every communication or interview they grant that is meant for public consumption should be made public via their own media. This is not just a matter of safeguarding what was actually said; it is imperative because the information belongs to the public who fund the EC with their taxes. Election results should be published in machine readable formats for easy manipulation and analysis. The fears of distortion are unfounded because if the information is easily accessible on, say, their website, anybody can check and cross-check results making the efforts of forgers futile.

But the EC should know this, shouldn't they? Who advises them on such matters? I think they have the liberty to play dumb on these issues because nobody has shone the spotlight on them. Ghanaians are generally content to have election results published in newspapers. They probably don't care about doing their own analysis with the data. They probably don't care about hearing from the Electoral Commissioner on general issues either, so dubious excuses like these will endure for quite a while.