Head of Research at the Ghana Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana), Mr Mawuse Domevu, has asked the various stakeholders especially the political parties to be patient with the Electoral Commission (EC) as they address concerns raised regarding the newly-compiled voters register.
He said in an interview with Alfred Ocansey on the News 360 on TV3 Thursday September 24 that the EC has given assurances that all the bottlenecks in the register will be resolved hence, the parties must calm down and allow the elections management to do its work.
The NDC had claimed that thousands of names of its members have been removed from the newly -compiled voters roll.
To that end, the flagbearer of the party Mr John Dramani Mahama has said he will not accept the results of the 2020 presidential elections if the processes leading to it are flawed.
He explained at a press conference at the headquarters of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in Accra on Thursday, September 24 that the Electoral Commission, Ghana (EC) has carried itself in a way that does not engender confidence among some political parties, ahead of the elections.
Addressing journalists on the alleged missing of some names on the recently compiled voters register, the NDC flagbearer said the EC has sidestepped an important stakeholder in Ghana’s electoral process, the Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC) and this has resulted in untold challenges of the elections management body as well as the parties.
“There is something happening in this exhibition that we have never seen since 1992. We have been taking part in registration and exhibition of voter registers and some of the areas where a whole segment of names, thousands of names can get missing from the register is unacceptable.
“That is why we are saying that it is the widespread scale of the incident and the quantum that we are dealing with that are the problem.”
‘I won’t’
For him, the exhibition is usually characterized by low turnout and so the situation will get out of hand on elections day.
“So, if you go to those stations where 700 people’s names are missing, and 700 people’s names are missing, if they don’t come for exhibition, how are you going to capture them and replace them in the register?
Reacting to this development, Mr Domenu said “I think there are various opportunities that have been provided through the process that are set in motion by the EC. So I think I will urge the political parties that have issues to be patient.
“We will also urge the EC to also engage the political parties and try and bring all the parties involved.”
He added “The issue are a bit worrying. The missing names from a register is something that happens from time to time but given the magnitude of the cases that have been poured out of this particular exercise , it is a bit worrying.
“The EC has gone a step further by engaging the various stakeholders at the IPAC. They have given the assurance the issues in there will be fixed.
But we think that once they are given that assurance and they are working on getting these things fixed, it will be incumbent on them to from time to time give an update on what has actually transpired or the extent to which they have been able to get these issues resolved.”
By Laud Nartey|3news.com|Ghana