The Electoral Commission (EC) of Ghana says it has no agenda in motion to remove names of supporters and sympathizers of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) from the voters register.
The election management body has therefore urged the general public to disregard or treat with contempt any claim that it is carrying out an agenda to disenfranchise members of the umbrella family from participating in the 2020 general elections.
According to the EC, the exhibition of the voters register has rather afforded them the opportunity to fix all the issues unearthed during the exercise, assuring that they are working to ensure that the margin of error with the voters register is negligible.
“Our attention has been drawn to statements in the media by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and its Flag bearer to the effect that the Electoral Commission is carrying out an agenda to remove the names of its supporters and sympathizers from the Voters Register. This allegation is false”, noted the EC in a statement debunking the allegations.
It said the Commission has, from the beginning of the compilation of the Voters Register, lived up to its motto: Fairness, Transparency and Accountability and have at every point, provided factual, accurate and evidence based information to its Stakeholders on voter statistics per region, district, gender, age among others.
This, the Commission noted, has kept every interested Ghanaian informed on the number of persons who registered in the just concluded Voter Registration Exercise based on the information we provided.
“It is a paradox, therefore, to suggest that the same Commission now seeks to remove persons from the Voters Register. Had that been the agenda of the Commission, it would not have given detailed information to Stakeholders throughout the Registration process. We assure the General Public that these allegations are unfounded. For the information of the Public, the Exhibition of the Provisional Voters Register has been provided for in the Law (CI 91). The Law, recognizing that a registration process is not full proof, has provided a mechanism called “Exhibition” to allow citizens to verify their details to ensure that they are captured in the register or that their details such as sex, age, name etc. are accurate. The Exhibition also affords Voters the opportunity to correct any errors detected”, the statement by the EC in part read.
It further stated “Additionally, 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. This process is not new and has always formed part of our processes. In a nutshell, the Exhibition Exercise provides an opportunity to Stakeholders to unearth problems with the Register for the purpose of fixing it. This is exactly what the Electoral Commission is doing. We are fixing the issues unearthed. We assure the Public that the Commission is working to ensure that the margin of error with the Voters Register is negligible. We are confident that at the end of the process, we will bequeath the nation with a Register that reflects truth and integrity, a Register that is credible and comprises eligible Ghanaians only. May God bless our homeland Ghana and make our nation great and strong”.
