EC Advisors Caution For Consultation On New Voters Register

The Electoral Commission’s Committee of Eminent Advisors has advised the election management body to do more consultation on its intent to compile a new voters’ register for the 2020 election.

The advice was delivered today to the EC which has estranged itself from a large faction of political parties and the public with what is seen as a pig-headed agenda to compile a new register by hook or crook.

Chaired by Justice Emile Short, former Commissioner of the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice, the Committee of Advisors also advocated amicability with the Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC) which the EC has largely ignored in what is seen as a self-opinionated move to compile the register.

The meeting with the EC took place today. At the end of it, the Committee issued a press statement announcing its intent to meet with IPAC as part of the peacebuilding process.

This position by the advisors is a departure from the confrontational disposition that the EC has had towards IPAC, leading to a chaotic relationship with opposition parties which have formed a coalition to resist the compilation of the new register.

It is not yet known if the Jean Mensah-led Commission will heed the advice of the Eminent Committee of advisors, which has been interpreted by many to mean that they want the EC to postpone the compilation of a new register for 2020.

If the EC were to abide by the advice, then it is very likely that the new register will not be compiled for the next election given that Ghana is already in its election year.

Apparently, today’s meeting is the Committee’s first significant engagement with the Commission since it was constituted in December last year. It is chaired by Mr. Emile Short and has a former President of the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA), Mrs. Gifty Affenyi-Dadzie as the deputy chairperson.

Other members are Most Rev. Prof. Emmanuel Asante, Chairman of the National Peace Council; Sheikh Osman Nuhu Sharubutu, National Chief Imam; Maulvi Mohammed Bin Salih, Ameer of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community; Rt. Rev Paul Kwabena Boafo, Presiding Bishop of the Methodist Church, Ghana; Nana Ato Dadzie, a former Chief of Staff and Archbishop Nicholas Duncan-Williams, President of the National Charismatic Christian Churches.

The others are: Rev Dr Cyril G.K. Fayose, General Secretary of the Christian Council of Ghana; Mr Tony Forson, President of the Ghana Bar Association; Rev. Dr. Paul Frimpong-Manso, Head of the Pentecostal Council; Most Rev. Prof. Emmanuel Martey, a former Moderator of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana; Dr. Rose Mensah-Kutin, a Gender Advocate and Mr Roland Affail Monney, President of the GJA.