The National Democratic Congress (NDC), has given a strong warning to the Electoral Commissioner and her Deputy, Jean Mensah and Bossman Asare, to reconsider their plan of compiling a new voters register to set the stage to suppress voter numbers in the strongholds of the NDC and to bloat voter numbers in the strongholds of the NPP.
“Many Ghanaians including NDC hold the view that there is something sinister behind the ploy by the Jean Mensah-Bossman Asare-led EC to compile a new voters register. Their conduct so far portends a devious plan to set the stage to suppress voter numbers in the strongholds of the NDC and to bloat voter numbers in the strongholds of the NPP”.
Addressing the media, Mr. Johnson Aseidu Nketia, General Secretary of the biggest opposition party the NDC disclosed that, the party have gotten the impression that the current Chairman of the EC sees her mandate only in terms of getting President Akufo-Addo re-elected even if it means subverting the hard-won reputation of the respected institution.
According to Mr. Nketia, it is the same current voter register that was used to elect President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and the NPP into office of wnich, the details of that election are yet to be gazetted by the EC.
He noted that if anybody should be complaining about the register, it should be the NDC as the losing party.
The NDC General Secretary again revealed saying, the same current voters register was used to successfully elect about 6,600 District Assembly members, and 33,000 Unit Committee member.
“Yet, the EC is telling Ghanaians that the same register cannot be used to elect 1 President and 275 Members of Parliament and therefore a new voters register must be compiled. What has suddenly gone wrong with the register or what is likely to go wrong with the register between now and the election day of 7th December 2020 as to warrant such a decision?”.
The economy he mentioned is in a near-comatose state and therefore, cannot afford another wasteful expenditure coming on the heels of that highly controversial decision to award a contract for printing new currency notes of higher denomination at the reported cost of several billions of new Ghana cedis.
The cost of a new voter register Mr. Nketia averred based on information gathered, is estimated at a gargantuan sum of over GHC 443,646,663 or 4.436 Trillion old cedis.
“And we are going to do this at a time when teachers are crying, nurses are crying, contractors are crying, drivers are crying and students are crying. The teachers, nurses and contractors are crying because they are owed huge arrears of emoluments and entitlements by the state. The drivers are crying because the perennial increases in fuel prices are driving them out of business. The students are crying because of the obnoxious double track system arising from the fact that the Government does not have money to provide residential and learning accommodation for them under the Free SHS system”.
The Electoral Commission he pointed out must tell Ghanaians which of the functionalities cannot be undertaken by the system currently in place, adding that from June 7, 2019 to July 8, 2019 the system the EC is claiming, registered 1,206,740 registrants during the limited registration exercise.
He stated that it was the EC itself that announced to Ghanaians that the registration exercise was very successful.
“From September 10, 2019 to September 20, 2019 the EC exhibited the 2019 Provisional Voters Registers also based on the current system. Clearly, a system that can perform this way is more than adequate to process data on a limited registration data in 2020 for the elections”.
He called 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 their technical team to come up with solutions to the technical challenges they claim it is having, in order to enhance transparency and also inspire confidence in their system.
Mr. Aseidu Nketia on behalf of the NDC party, invited the media, civil society, moral society and the diplomatic community to make their voices heard on the decision of the EC under Jean Mensah and Bossman Asare to compile a new voters register for the 2020 elections.
“We must make common cause to ensure that the EC does not take the entire nation on this wasteful and uncertain path that has the potential to plunge this country into crisis”.
He refered to a publication of Coalition for Domestic Elections Observers report, in which it stated that the Biometric Verification Devices function well in almost all polling station during the just ended District Assembly Elections.
The General Secretary further drew the press attention to a statement made by Dr. Bossman Asare, published in the Wednesday 18th December, 2019 edition of the Ghanaian Times, where he referred to the turnout and conduct of the electoral process in the just ended District Assembly Election as satisfactory.
“Decisions of the EC must be above board. A peaceful and successful election is the result of collaboration between all stakeholders. No member of the Commission should see himself or herself as an appointee of President Akufo-Addo with the sole mandate of ensuring his safe passage to a second term”.
The NDC he disclosed, is ever ready to cooperate with the EC, but added that Mrs. Jean Mensah and Mr. Bossman Asare must demonstrate neutrality and fairness. According to him, they must be willing to listen to counter-proposals and suggestions that will inure to the conduct of credible elections as has happened under previous administrations of the EC.
Source: Kwame Atuapim/sharpnewsgh.com
