Minority claim of excluding 6,300 polling stations not true – EC
Contrary to reports by the Minority in Parliament that the Electoral Commission intends to exclude thousands of polling stations from the new voters’ registration exercise, the commission says the claims are untrue.
The Minority leader, Haruna Iddrissu on Tuesday, told journalists that the EC Boss, Jean Mensah, had told the Special budget committee that 6,300 polling stations will be knocked off.
According to him, the move will not only disenfranchise Ghanaians but also create overcrowding in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Having listened to her, I feel profoundly troubled in my heart for the future of Ghana’s democracy and I feel disappointed that in her answers to questions at the committee level, she made two significant statements…they intend to phase out the registration exercise in some 6,300 registration centres out of the 33, 000 registration centres across the country,” he said.
But speaking to theghanareport.com, a Deputy Commissioner at the EC, Dr. Bossman Asare said the claims are false.
He said the new voters’ registration exercise will be done in phases hence, the claims of the NDC MPs cannot be true.
“We’re doing the registration in phases. So we have put the areas into groups so it’s not true that we will exclude any polling station. We can’t even do that. We won’t do the registration across the country at the same time,” Dr. Asare told theghanareport.com.
He added that the EC has no intention to either merge or exclude a polling station.
Health analysts have expressed worry over the decision by the EC to embark on its mass voter registration exercise to be used during the 2020 general elections.
One of such analysts is the former Director-General of the Ghana Health Service, Dr. Elias Sory.
He described the move by the EC as a ‘risky’. According to him, the commission should halt its plans of compiling a new voters’ register if it cannot guarantee the safety of voters at the registration centres.
EC, NIA Registration: Make sure everyone adheres to Covid-19 protocols outlined – Dr. Sory
Ghana’s COVID-19 cases has soared to 12,193 with 4,326 recoveries.
Coronavirus related deaths also increased by four, bring the total to 58. This was disclosed by the Director-General of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Dr. Patrick Kuma-Aboagye.
These figures have been called into question by the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD).
Documents available to theghanareport.com indicate that the reported number of deaths associated with the coronavirus is higher than what is being reported by the government.
EXCLUSIVE: Ghana’s COVID 19 death more than what GHS reports
The documents revealed that the Ashanti regional reported cases should be 38 and not 14 as contained in the National Situation Report of the Ghana Health Service.
Ghana’s Covid-19 death figure of 54, which was announced by the President in his 11th Broadcast to the Nation last Sunday, June 14th, was calculated using 14 deaths from Ashanti Region. This was despite the fact that the Ashanti Region sent a figure of 38 deaths on the 13th of June, a day before the president addressed the nation.