Director of Elections for the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Evans Nimako has justified the Electoral Commission’s (EC) decision to compile a new register.
He said the transparent process of the voters’ registration exercise shows that the EC’s decision to compile a new register was prudent.
“Going into this 2020 election, I think the decision to compile a new register is in the right direction. What we have experienced so far is a registration process that has been run very well. It has been very transparent, the EC has been updating stakeholders at all times,” Mr. Nimako said on The Point of View on Citi TV.
He also pointed out that it will be too early to rubbish the EC’s claim of compiling a new register due to a bloated one. About 15.1 million people have so far registered in the exercise.
Projections are that about 16.7 million which is just a 100,000 lower than the number of persons on the old register – 16.8 million will be registered by the end of the exercise.
Given the above projections, some have suggested that the old register might not be too bloated to merit a new one, as suggested by the EC.
Mr. Nimako however, said such claims are premature since the EC had not yet completed its exercise.
“I think that what we have gotten, there are opportunities for people to register. There are centres that people have not registered. At the end of Thursday, the EC will come out with mop-up figures so, for me, I think we should take our time before making conclusions.”
He also clarified that the EC’s decision to compile a new register was not only based on a bloated register but other reasons including some defects with the voter management system.
“The argument from the EC was that the voter management system had some defaults and going into the 2020 general elections, they could not vouch for that system so a lot of discussions went on for a new system to be put in place.”
Mop up registration
Eligible Ghanaians who could not participate in the mass voter registration exercise have been given another opportunity to do so at the district offices of the Electoral Commission (EC).
The commission has added two more days for the registration of prospective voters on Saturday 8th August and Sunday 9th August, 2020. The electoral management body will be concluding the main registration exercise on Thursday, August 6, 2020.
But a statement from the EC announcing the mop-up exercise indicated that “eligible applicants who wish to register should visit the District Offices within their Districts to be registered”.
Source: citinewsroom.com
