By Franklin ASARE-DONKOH
The Chairperson of Ghana’s Electoral Management Body, the Electoral Commission (EC) has denied claims that it is colluding with the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) to disenfranchise would be voters in the ongoing Limited Voter Registration.
The opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) had earlier accused the Commissioners of making it difficult for first-time voters in their strongholds to register by deliberately sending faulty registration machines to those areas.
The NDC also accused the EC of colluding with the NPP to disenfranchise eligible voters.
However, the EC at a media briefing on Monday 18, September 2023 debunked these claims, saying that the issue of faulty devices was faced across all 16 regions except Savannah.
At the media engagement addressed by the EC Chairperson, Mrs. Jean Mensa, she indicated that the allegations leveled against the Commission are untrue.
She acknowledged that there are challenges that have been addressed and that the registration is going smoothly.
“As a Commission, we are working around the clock to ensure that every eligible voter or person who is eligible to register does so with ease. We have heard allegations from various quarters that the Commission is disenfranchising eligible voters and this is false.
It is not in our interest to disenfranchise any eligible voter. We pride ourselves that our voter register meets international best practices.
We are well aware that the Commission’s policy to use our 268 district offices as registration centres have attracted some criticism from some section of society and as you are all aware, the Commission conducted a full-blown registration exercise in some 33,000 plus polling stations in 2020 and it is important to note that the current exercise is an update of the register.” She told journalists in Accra.
The Commission has however, explained that the restriction of the registration to its district offices will not in any way disenfranchise voters as the commission plans to hold continuous registration in the District Offices as well as mop-up exercises in hard-to-reach areas before the 2024 elections, Mrs. Mensah added.
“It is important to note that this will not be the only registration exercise we will have before the 2024 elections,” She reiterated.