Ayawaso West Wuogon by-election register not bloated – EC
The Electoral Commission (EC) has described as untrue, allegations by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) that the Commission has bloated the voters’ register for the Ayawaso West Wuogon by-election.
According to the Commission, the said register is a combination of the voters list, transfer list and proxy list which were contained in separate lists in 2016, hence the increase in numbers.
A statement issued on Wednesday and signed by the Deputy Chairperson in charge of Corporate Services, Dr. Bossman Asare, also denied claims by the party that its attempts to access the proxy list, transfer list and special voters list have yielded no results.
The statement noted that the party first requested a copy of the main register in December 2018 and it was made available to them in December 2018.
It said, following that, the party made a “late” request for the said lists on Friday, January 25, 2019 “when the activities of the Commission had winded down”.
The statement explained further that the inability of the EC to make the lists available to the NDC was because letters of such nature go through a process of recording at the registry before they are brought to the attention of the addresses.
“Requests for confidential information, require the approval of the Chairperson or Deputy Chairpersons before same are released. Whilst the Commission believes in responding in a timely manner to requests from the Political Parties, it will not compromise its processes and laid down systems for any entity.”
The statement further urged the public to disregard the allegations by the NDC and assured that the Ayawaso West Wuogon register is clean and reflects the total number of valid voters in the constitutency.
“It is not bloated as claimed by the NDC. For the information of the public, the Special Voters List, Transfer List and Proxy list were contained in separate lists in 2016. They have now been combined with the main list, hence the increase in numbers. The Electoral Commission has since provided the NDC with all the registers/lists they have requested namely the Special Voters List, the Proxy list and the Transfer List.”
Source: Graphic online