EC Insists Voters’ Register Not Bloated

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Created on Monday, 19 January 2015 00:00

EC Insists Voters’ Register Not Bloated

The Electoral Commission (EC) has insisted that the current voter’s register is not bloated. According to Mr Amadu Sulley, Deputy Commissioner in charge of Operations at the EC, statistics at the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) and data available at the EC supported the EC’s insistence on a clean, credible and reliable register.

He,therefore, called on the people to disabuse their minds of claims by a section of society that the register was bloated.

Mr Sulley, who was speaking at a day’s sensitisation workshop on improving the quality of information in the electoral process, said the figure arrived after the registration was within the range provided by the GSS.

Population growth

He said the comparisons being made with countries such as Australia and Kenya must not be used in Ghana’s case because population growth in terms of age groups in those countries cannot be the same as in Ghana.

Speaking on the district level elections, Mr Sulley urged the media to play its advocacy role to ensure the success of the polls.

He expressed regret that the media had in some cases not been circumspect and used the incorrect terminologies in their reports and advised them to study the country’s electoral laws and guidelines on them to avoid creating unnecessary panic and tension.

Mr Sulley admitted that the district level elections had faced challenges due to boundary disputes and other unavoidable problems.

Expunge

Answering questions from the media, Ms Georgina Opoku Amankwaa, a member of the Commission in charge of Finance and Administration, said even though the Supreme Court, presided over by the Chief Justice, dismissed a suit which sought to compel the EC to expunge the names of about 12 million voters in the 2010 register after the Supreme Court had upheld a petition to restrain the EC from using the NHIA identity card as the basis in the last registration exercise, lawyers from the same chamber that handled the suit which was dismissed by the same court had again petitioned the EC to expunge the names from the register.

Ms Opoku-Amankwaa said she was at a loss over the petition because at the time the register was compiled, there was a ruling which barred the use of the NHIA identity card for registration.

Disqualification

She said the EC had received petitions for the disqualification of some nominees in the forthcoming district level elections and cited the case of a candidate who had displayed his political party’s membership card in the background of his campaign poster and consequently acted to disqualify the candidate.

She said other complaints are being investigated for action.

The Executive Secretary of the National Media Commission, Mr George Sarpong, who spoke on “media contribution to election success,’’ described the district level elections as most complicated due to its peculiarities such as its non-partisan nature, among others.

Mr Sarpong urged the media to uphold the truth and to avoid peddling falsehood which could lead to violence.

The Director of the Office of Democracy, Rights and Governance of the United States Agency for International Development, Mr Steven Edminster, underscored the role of the media in the sustenance of democracy and urged the media to live up to its responsibilities as the watchdog of society.

Source: Daily Guide