NDC demands independent audit of newly compiled electoral roll
The opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) has called for an independent audit of the newly compiled voters register.
With the Electoral Commission hinting that it will remove the names of foreigners, minors and multiple applicants, the party’s Director of Elections, Elvis Afriyie Ankrah, believes an independent audit of the register will put the minds of all stakeholders at ease.
He alleged that the Electoral Commission and the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) were working together to derail Ghana’s democratic process.
“Details of all the people who have engaged in multiple registrations including their photographs, identification numbers, and their polling stations should be made available to the political parties”,
“This is because we do not want their [EC’s] so-called duplication exercise to be used as an excuse to delete the names of persons who belong to certain ethnic groups because we [NDC] will be watching with eagle eyes,”Mr Ankrah said at a press briefing on Thursday.
It followed a few days after the Commission had patted itself on the back for the successful completion of the voters’ registration exercise.
Last week, the EC during its weekly update assured it is on course to deliver a credible election with a register comprising only Ghanaians.
Reacting to this, the NDC Elections Director said, this shows that the EC embarked on a needless venture to rob the public purse.
He then accused the Jean Mensa-led EC of partnering with the Akufo-Addo led government to suppress disenfranchise citizens in NDC’s strongholds.
“Today the veil has been lifted and it is clear for all Ghanaians to see that the claim of a bloated register by the NPP and the EC is not only unfounded. But part of a grand plan to manipulate a new register to support Akufo-Addo’s reelection at a huge cost of about US$150million,”
“The EC is investing in press conferences and propaganda as a tool for damage control. We wish to advise the EC to invest in integrity, truthfulness, and honesty,” he noted.
The NDC and some minority parties and some civil society organisations have been against the register ever since the EC mooted the idea.
They insisted that it would be a waste of resources while the EC maintained that the old register was not fit for purpose.
The case ended up in court with the Supreme Court giving the commision the go-ahead to compile the new register ahead of the December polls.
I am really sad for Ghanaians for a simple reason that a credible voter register cannot be used but to create a new one at the huge cost of about US$150million only to see that it is bloated out of proportion at expense of Ghanaians’ comfort. EC Chair must be reminded that 101 prominent university professors, some whom may have lectured her before advised her but she is wiser than them and went ahead to put US$150million into the drain.
Jean Mensa should be reminded that even Banks such as Consolidated Bank Ghana (CBG) is not accepting National ID Cards Ghana that was used to register this new voter ID card. It therefore means that huge sum of money lost to the state by Ghanaians acquiring GHANA Cards that do not work. Any lessons learned, EC?