Peace Council should stop talking about peace and attend to the errors in the voters’ register – Ohene Ntow

Nana Ohene Ntow, a senior policy advisor to Alan John Kwadwo Kyerematen, has asked the National Peace Council to take interest in the matters arising from the quarters of the Electoral Commission (EC) instead of preaching peace.

He says the developments in relation to the voter’s register has the potential of causing mayhem in the country, something he wants the National Peace Council to take to heart instead of always preaching peace.

“The Peace Council, if they truly exist, should stop talking about peace and address the issues coming out from the processes to avoid repetition of what happened in Techiman.

“It is surprising that over 3,000 names have been affected in one constituency. If Bossman says this is an administrative error, then it is worrying. And if it is an error, then it is very egregious and if it is, the EC alone shouldn’t sit in their rooms to address it.

“The errors were not even detected by them but rather one of the two main political parties who is not in government. So the political implications are that, if care is not taken, since the party in power has been silent so far, it makes people wonder what is going on whether the party in power is quiet because they think it is in their favour or something else,” he added.

The concerns stem from some errors in the voters’ register which the NDC drew the attention of the EC on.

The NDC had earlier accused the Commission of deliberately transferring people from their place of voting to other centres whilst they were not aware of the development.

The party issued a statement and demanded the Commission to explain to the public how those errors came about. In a press conference addressed by the Deputy Chairman of the EC in charge of Corporate Services, Dr Eric Bossman Asare, he admitted that although there were errors, those were not intentional and also to aid any rigging as the NDC alleged.

“Preliminary investigations by the Commission have revealed that voter transfers were indeed effected for Thirty-Eight (38) individuals using the credentials of an Electoral Commission Official. The records of those transfers are captured in the Voter Management System’s (VMS) audit logs. A look at the verification done during the transfer process shows that photos of the voters from their Voter ID Cards were used for facial verification and to effect the transfer,” he disclosed.

The EC, however, indicated that those errors were not meant to rig the elections as the NDC is suggesting.

“It is also absolutely untrue that the Commission has added names to the Voters Register in a bid to rig the elections for a particular party. Those allegations are without merit and should be disregarded by the Public. The EC has no intention of bloating the register to give any political party advantage over the other,” Dr. Asare added.

Source:onuaonline.com