CARE Ghana Demands Details Of 30,000 Registrants Struck Out Of Voter Register

Election watch group, Care for Free and Fair Elections Ghana (CARE GHANA) is demanding that the Electoral Commission publishes the list of the names of the voters whose names were struck out of the voters’ register.

“The Electoral Commission Chairperson, Jean Mensah, surprised the nation when she recently announced that some 30,000 names had been struck out of the register due to various infractions, but strangely, never published the list of names,” Care stated.

In a 27th October letter to the EC, CARE Ghana said the situation was causing unease among the voting public because nobody knows if he or she is affected.

“We have followed the pronouncement on the 25th October 2020 on the 30,000 names and or individuals who have been disqualified and prevented from participating in the 7th December 2020 general elections. 

 Unfortunately, a full list and detail information did not accompany the pronouncement for the disqualification by the Electoral Commission,” CARE charged the EC.

“This is creating fear, panic and anxiety among many innocent eligible voters who are not certain whether they are part of these disqualified persons or not.”

In the EC’s announcement, it claimed that among the 30,000 disqualified, 14,000 were individuals whose disqualification were as a result of registering after the period of registration. 

“This is strange because among the reasons informing the EC’s decision for the need for a new voter’s register was to provide a robust system that cannot be infiltrated or manipulated,” queried CARE in a statement signed by David Kumi Addo, Executive Secretary of the non-governmental organisation.

“…the EC stated that the register has been increased by some 44,430 following the exhibition exercise; this is because, before the exhibition exercise the Electoral Commission publicly announced that it had registered 16,963,306 applicants. However, after the exhibition exercise, the figure mysteriously changed to 17,007,026,” CARE re-echoed general suspicions that the EC was up to some foul play aimed at profiting the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP)