CSOs, Political Parties kick against New Voters’ Register

The Jean Mensa led Electoral Commission (EC) has once again come under severe scrutiny for planning to spend over GHS400 million to compile a new register.

Coalition of CSOs for Good Governance including ACEPA Ghana, Community Focus Foundation, Grassroot Mobilisers Network, Governance Watch, Swiss Angel Foundation, Positive Thinkers Foundation, CDG Ghana, Chamber of Local Governance, Muslim Youth Association, Coalition for Peace and Development, Africa Centre for Peace Building, among others have kicked against the plan.

Speaking at a Coalition of CSOs for Good Governance inspired forum on the topic: “Does Ghana Really Need A New Voter Register?” at the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences in Accra, Bernard Mornah, National Chairman of the People’s National Convention (PNC), says the EC’s call to compile a new electoral register will be a waste of money and time.

He said the excuse by the EC that the current register is bloated is untenable because even if the names of dead persons on are still on the register, “dead persons do not vote.”

What the EC can do, according to the Chairman of the PNC, is to synchronize the data from the old to the new machines, noting that, “they don’t need a new register”.

Mr. Kwesi Pratt Jnr., Managing Editor of the Insight Newspaper, in his delivering said until now, no one including the EC has provided concrete reasons why the country needed a new voters’ register for the 2020 polls.

He said “Nobody has provided the answer as to why we should change a very credible voters’ register and yet we are being called upon to spend close to one billion cedis to change something which is credible. This certainly does not fall into the category of common sense. It falls under the category of no sense.”

Mr. Pratt is of a firm conviction that, President Akufo-Addo and Vice- President Dr Bawumia led NPP government is behind the move change the voters’ register.

The EC insists it will compile the new register saying the current one is overstretched and weak.

The Commission said at a press conference on Tuesday, December 31, 2019 that the move to procure the biometric system is informed by advice from its IT personnel and external IT consultants.

According to the EC, assessment of the system by the two teams has revealed that it would be prudent to acquire a new system rather than refurbish the current one.

Source: Adovor Nutifafa

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