The New Patriotic Party (NPP) has served notice to the Electoral Commission (EC) of Ghana, cautioning it to immediately halt all the processes involved in the internal cleaning of the voters’ register until approval is sought from all the political parties to do so.
According to the elephant family, it is completely dissatisfied with the response of the electoral body to its request for a new voters’ register for the conduct the November 7 Presidential and Parliamentary polls and subsequent elections in the country.
In August, 2015, the NPP led by Dr. Bawumia, described the country’s electoral roll as terminally faulty and which cannot be relied on for the 2016 Presidential and Parliamentary elections.
He revealed that the NPP had identified 76,286 persons with the same data in both Ghana and Togo’s voters’, a figure he said represents 10% of the work in progress.
Some other African nationals from Ivory Coast and Burkina Faso, according to Dr. Bawumia, were also on the country’s electoral register.
Worried about the flawed document, the Vice-Presidential Candidate of the NPP then called for a new register ahead of the November 7, 2016 polls.
But the Electoral Commission under the tutelage of its Chairperson, Charlotte Osei, on the eve of the New Year, shot down the call for a new voters’ register.
It said the argument for the call for the new voters’ roll was not convincing and therefore, does not recommend the replacement of the current register.
Instead, the Commission said it “will continue to engage stakeholders to ensure that a clean and credible voters’ register is in place for the 2016 general elections through an inclusive and collaborative audit process.”
In a recent interview on Accra-based Joy FM, Madam Charlotte Osei, disclosed that the EC was currently undertaking a cleaning of the Register.
She told listeners that the EC has so far identified in Ashanti Region, 200,000 names in the current register that are on the Multiple Registration list which they were going to clear.
However, at a press conference to react to the response of the EC, Campaign Manager of the NPP, Peter Mac Manu, told journalists that the claims by the EC of identifying 200,000 names in the Ashanti Region was contrary to the 150,000 names it mentioned as those identified nationwide.
He said it would therefore, be suicidal for the EC to go ahead with its plans towards cleaning the alleged bloated voters’ register if it does seek clearance from the political parties.
“This disclosure is very strange. The EC in its response to the NPP claimed in page 23 that 150,000 names had been identified as multiples nationwide. How is it possible therefore for the EC to identify as much as 200,000 names in the Ashanti Region alone?”
“The NPP is by this response calling for an immediate stop to all processes involved in the so-called internal cleaning of the Register until all parties can satisfy themselves of the modalities and means by which this so called internal cleaning is being done”, he said.
