Mahama claim on removal of NDC supporters from register ‘false’ – EC
The Electoral Commission (EC) has refuted allegations of disenfranchising supporters of the opposition NDC.
The electoral management body said it is not true as being alleged by the NDC and its flagbearer to the effect that the EC was carrying out an agenda to remove the names of its supporters and sympathisers from the voters register.
“This allegation is false,” the Commission stressed in a statement.
The EC said it has been fair and ensure transparency and accountability at every process of the compilation of a register.
“Indeed, at every point, we have provided factual, accurate and evidence-based information to our stakeholders on voter statistics per region, district, gender, age, among others. To date, every interested Ghanaian has information on the number of persons who registered in the just concluded voter registration exercise based on the information we provided.
“We assure the General Public that these allegations are unfounded,” the release emphasised.
A voter exhibition exercise which started on Friday, September 18 has generated numerous allegations from the NDC.
There are some isolated reports of missing names, duplicate voter ID numbers and other concerns observed at some registration centres in the country.
The EC has acknowledged some anomalies with the purpose of the exercise to correct the particulars of every voter.
However, the NDC is of the view that a large number of voters are being expunged.
The development has forced flagbearer of the NDC, former President John Mahama to cut short his tour of the Bono Region to return to Accra.
The EC has explained that the law “provides for ‘inclusion’ to allow persons who registered but whose names are not on the register, to file to be included in the register”.
“In a nutshell, the exhibition exercise provides an opportunity to stakeholders to unearth problems with the register for the purpose of fixing it,” the Commission maintained.
The EC also assured that public that it would work to maintain a negligible margin of error with the voter roll to ensure a credible election in December 2020.
The exhibition period initially scheduled for a week has also been extended by two days.
Instead of September 25, the deadline is now slated for Sunday, September 27.