Two political parties –the Progressive People’s Party (PPP) and the Liberal Party of Ghana (LPG) — and a former independent presidential candidate, Jacob Osei Yeboah (JOY), have backed the decision by the Electoral Commission (EC) to compile a new voters register.
The PPP said the EC could not be denied the appropriate tools it genuinely needed to do a credible job, while the LPG said peace was priceless, hence the need for Ghanaians to rally behind the EC to compile a new biometric voters register.
Mr Yeboah also called on all Ghanaians to support the acquisition of a biometric voter management system (BVMS) for the 2020 elections.
The First Chairperson of the PPP, Mr William Doworkpor, and the Founder and the Leader of the LPG, Mr Kofi Akpaloo, spoke to the Daily Graphic in separate interviews, while Mr Yeboah indicated his position in a statement.
Competence
In his statement, Mr Yeboah posited that no patriotic Ghanaian, with competency in the critical but significant role a biometric voters register (BVR) played in successful and peaceful elections, would doubt the call by the EC for a new BVR for the 2020 elections.
“The call is professionally justified and all Ghanaians should support the acquisition of a new BVMS,” it said.
“We should be unassuming but conscientiously understand that the call by the EC for a new BVR is an unimpeachable confirmation that the national identification system has woefully failed due to incompetent implementation and systemic deliverable integration.
The National Identification Authority (NIA) could have automatically provided an updated BVR, so that the EC would have concentrated on compatible BVMS,” it added.
Under the circumstances, it said, the EC had no choice but to opt for the new BVR which Parliament had, accordingly, served Ghanaians well by giving approval for its acquisition.
NDC, others
The statement indicated that the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and some minor political parties were apprehensive over the compilation of a new BVR not because they did not have the technical competence but that they were afraid that the “EC’s independence.
Daily Graphic