Mrs Charlotte Kesson-Smith Osei
COMMENTARY- ELECTIONS & POLITICS: …A NEW VOTERS’ REGISTER- NDC SAYS NO & NPP ARGUES YES- THE SOLUTION APPEARS TO BE MORE OF ACCOUNTING[Auditing & Bank Reconciliation…] RATHER THAN POLITICS!
[1] The Reflections: The Nays seem and rightly so, to suggest the uncertainties that might arise should a new voters’ register was allowed- a possible fears being what could happen in the strongholds of NDC’s opponent- the NPP, vis-à-vis registration of “fresh minors” to abridge the current electoral gap of some 300,000 valid votes currently poling apart the sitting president from his main presidential challenger? [2] The proponents of a New Voters’ Register- mainly from the NPP, feel that by having their way on this argument, the some [un]accounted 241,000 overseas votes which as certified by the Supreme Court, evaporated to some 705 votes during the 2012 presidential petition hearing, might push their troubled political rival- NDC, into a very tight-corner, come 07 December 2016. This could be a wishful thought. [3] Granted but without conceding that if the NDC had been able to surmount such an electoral fortunes from or off our frontiers with whatever ploys, what can’t be within its reach again? Technologically argued, it is haunting to predict where Ghana stands now. Thus, not until recently, we all knew how the European Embassies [visa sections] in Ghana had had to grapple with diverse identities and passports? [4] Indeed, any intelligent bystander who also loves his/her neighbor as himself, might fairly not dispute the fact that something is amiss with our current register- at least on the footing of the “twenty-four 0”. But how sure could the advocates for a new voters’ register, support/substantiate the claim that the unfolding Expose inured only the baits of the NDC but not NPP and the other smaller political parties- and that it did only occur on our frontiers but it is impossible to be so in the main-lands of the country? [5] Whereas the yet to be authenticated finger-pointing represent a test to our multi-party democracy, the blind side of the argument could be, respectfully, the security uncertainties that it poses to Ghana- and here, in relation to cross-border crimes associated to those whose permanent place of abode/residence, appear somehow unsettled. So what ought to be done with the findings of the NPP private investigators? [6] Since the “Bawumia Committee” had come out publicly with such research report to make not only a case for the NPP and its following but also to the Ghanaian voter and the world at large, by implication it opens itself to cross-examination and/or cross-references. And what readily comes to mind is the methodology used for their research work- and here whether or not its outcomes, are based on field-work or premised on desk-top. We may certainly be shown the research basket and its unused contents. [7] That said, an imaginary Electoral Commissioner Asante Fordjour, would have argued alongside others that the current problems with the Ghana’s Voters’ Register could be more of accounting than politics- and the solution could be respectfully, found by reconciling the following Base Documents: (1) The Comprehensive figures of the 2010 National Census; (2) the Updated/current Voters’ Register; as against (3) the unfolding NPP’s intelligence gathering materials on the Ghana/Togo’s Voters’ Registers.…
SUMMARY NOTES: The current debate appears to have been reduced to partisan-politics and it might remain so until 2016. Yet, a case could be made against A New Voters’ Register- that if our company’s annual returns are found to be lacking in transparency- under/over valuation of assets and/or liabilities, perhaps, we need not to jettison the base records which could respectfully, serve as reference point for a more reputable/ acceptable one- but yes, not where the cost involved might lead to its untimely death!
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