It’s false; we’re not removing NDC supporters from voter register – EC
The Electoral Commission (EC) has described as “false” statements by the main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) and its flagbearer John Mahama to the effect that the election management body is carrying out an agenda to remove the names of its supporters and sympathisers from the voter register.
The EC says it has from the beginning of the compilation of the voter register, lived up to its motto: Fairness, Transparency and Accountability.
“Indeed, at every point, we have provided factual, accurate and evidence-based information to our stakeholders on voter statistics per region, district, gender, age among others. To date, every interested Ghanaian has information 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 voter register,” the EC said in a statement.
The Commission noted that had that been its agenda, it would not have given detailed information to stakeholders throughout the registration process.
“We assure the general public that these allegations are unfounded,” the statement added.
The EC continued that the exhibition of the provisional voter register has been provided for in the Law (CI 91).
It added that the law, recognising 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.
Additionally, the commission stated that 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.
The EC continued: “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 voter register is negligible.”
The election management body expressed confidence that at the end of the process, it will bequeath the nation with a register that reflects truth and integrity, “a register that is credible and comprises eligible Ghanaians only.”