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LMVCA Throws Its Support Behind EC’s Decision To Compile New Voters’ Register On April 18-David Asante
The compilation of new voters’ register for the 2020 elections will begin on April 18, this year, the Electoral Commission (EC) has confirmed.
The commission has also expressed the hope that it will complete the exercise by May 30, 2020. A Deputy Chairperson of the EC in charge of Operations, Mr. Samuel Tettey, who disclosed this in an interview with the Daily Graphic Wednesday [January 22, 2020], said the commission intended to mount a voter’s register exhibition from August 15 to August 28, 2020.
Giving details of the EC’s calendar of activities, he said it would deploy 8,000 registration devices to cover the 32,000 polling stations across the country. He explained that the EC would use the cluster system for the registration, where four polling stations would form a cluster.
He said although the EC intended to spend 10 days at each cluster, mindful of the fact that the voting population in some polling stations was high, it might exceed the days at some polling stations to ensure that all eligible voters were registered. Mr. Tettey said after the 43-day registration period, the EC would provide a five-day mopping up period to take care of any exigencies.
Under its plans, he said, the registration of those with voter ID cards would be faster, explaining that because the EC already had their biodata, only the fingerprints and facials of such persons would be taken, unless such people desired to change some personal details for which they would be required to provide evidence.
For first-time registrants, he said, the EC would capture their biodata, including names, sex, names of parents, residential addresses, among other details.
Responding to some questions, a Deputy Chairperson of the EC in charge of Corporate Services, Dr. Eric Bossman Asare, said the EC intended to finish with the tendering processes and the award of the contract within a week or two. But before then, he said, the Eminent Advisory Committee of the EC would engage all political parties, civil society organizations (CSOs) and the EC to put the stakeholders on the same page.
That meeting, he said, would take place next week, indicating that the processes were ongoing to explain to the stakeholders why a new voters register was essential for the 2020 general election.
Reacting to the decision and the plans of the Electoral Commission (EC) on Okay FM’s Ade Akye Abia Morning Show, Mr. David Asante said the compilation new register must surely come on to better the country’s elections going forward.
“After NDC’s demonstration in Kumasi and a few two hundred people went on the street, the EC says the decision to compile a new voters’ register thinking through it all, the EC has set a date for new register and Let My Vote Count Alliance throw our support behind the compilation of a new register. It will surely come on and our elections will be better moving forward”, he said.
He was of the view that it is the constitutional mandate of the Electoral Commission to compile new register as enshrined in the constitution; adding that it is prudent that the decision to compile new register came from the EC itself after proper introspection and not from any political party.
He reiterated that whatever the political parties and civil society movements initiated about the voters’ register was their opinion but rather it is instructive if the initiation to compile new register is coming from the EC itself as the Commission has detected some technical challenges with the register.
“The Constitutional mandate of the Electoral Commission (EC) to manage elections also include the compilation of new voters’ register and that was why we stood out to call for new register then but Madam Charlotte Osei said that the new register was not relevant then. When she said that, did this town burn despite the Supreme Court ruling to compile new register?”, he stated.
