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The National Democratic Congress (NDC) has kicked against the compilation of a new voters’ register for the 2020 general election, claiming that it is a sinister move by the Electoral Commission (EC) to suppress votes in its strongholds and shore up those of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in its strongholds.
Moreover, it said the cost of GH¢444 million, according to its information, was too high for the country, looking at the state of the economy.
The party, therefore, called on the EC to set up a joint technical team of the political parties and that of the EC to look into the problems with the current register and how to address them.
The General Secretary of the NDC, Mr Johnson Asiedu Nketia, who said this at a press conference in Accra yesterday, noted that the current register had been used for a number of elections, including the just-ended local-level elections.
“We call on the EC to emulate the example set by Dr Kwadwo Afari-Gyan and set up a joint technical team made up of representatives of the political parties to work together with the EC’s technical team to come up with solutions to the technical challenges the EC claims it is having in order to enhance transparency and also inspire confidence in their system,” he said.
Local elections
Two days ago, Mr Nketia said, the current voters register was used to successfully elect about 6,600 district assembly members and about 33,000 unit committee members, yet the EC was telling Ghanaians that that same register could not be used to elect one President and 275 members of Parliament and, therefore, a new voters’ register must be compiled.
Mr Nketia questioned what had gone wrong with the register or what had gone wrong with the register between now and the election day on December 7, 2020 to warrant such a decision?
The current register, he said, was the same register that was used to elect the President and the New Patriotic Party into office.
He said the Ghana Statistical Service would be conducting a Population and Housing Census next year and indicated that “a new voters’ register can then be compiled by the EC because a new scientific population base would have been established, against which the accuracy of the EC’s voters’ register can be tested”.
Facial
The EC, Mr Nketia said, had indicated that it needed to introduce facial recognition to enable it to enhance the credibility of the current system.
