We Don’t Need Political Parties-EC On Controversial Voters’ Register

The Electoral Commission has insisted that it is unperturbed by the widespread condemnation of its intension to compile a new Voters’ Register a few months before the major general elections in December 2020.

Deputy EC Chairperson, Samuel Nartey in an interview with Accra-based CitiNews said it will not be moved by the press conferences and statements issued by some political parties in condemnation of its new voters’ register move, saying no political party can prevent the EC from fulfilling its constitutional mandate.

“EC is an independent organization and it was actually accepted by the constitution. It has a clear mandate, a clear function, and we all work in the interest of the Nation. What the EC thinks is the best is what they can do so it is not up to one or two political parties to decide for the people.” He said.

Referring to the opposition it is facing from some political parties such as the National Democratic Congress (NDC), the Progressive People’s Party (PPP), among others, he said: “they have actually made their intentions known at the IPAC meetings that they are not in favour of the new register but don’t forget that the 1992 Constitution, Article 45(a) actually gives the commission the mandate to compile a voters’ register and then revise it as such periods that it may consider necessary.”

These parties walked out of the last meeting  of the Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC) when they said the EC had sprang a surprise on them by informing them it was going ahead to acquire new voters’ biometric systems.

Despite the opposition to the new register, the Ghanaian Parliament recently authorised a release of about GHC 400 million to the EC to go ahead with the new system.

The election regulator led by Jean Mensah claims that the current voters’ register is bloated and can only be cleaned by compiling an entirely new one.

However, it was that same register that the EC used to recently conduct two successful elections, The District Assemblies election and the referendum for the six new regions. Indeed, independent election observers CODEO issued a report that the biometric system and the register functioned over 90 per cent accurate.

The Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) which recently condemned the EC’s plan, has said, the reasons given by the EC to justify a new register is not tenable.

Team Lead for Elections at CDD Ghana, Rhoda Osei Afful said the EC’s reasons are not convincing enough. “…I am not really convinced [with the reasons given so far, ]. So far as the recent election is concerned, it

[current register]

has not deteriorated so much. It has been quite consistent. This is not a big issue. It is not something that we cannot manage if we really want to have a clean register. The other point is that the,” she said.