Continuous registration is the way to go

The nationwide limited voters registration (LVR) exercise ended last Sunday with pockets of complaints about the failure of some eligible voters to get their names onto the electoral roll.

While many eligible voters, including some tertiary students and some political parties, have called on the Electoral Commission (EC) to extend the period of registration, other political parties and some governance institutions insist an extension is needless.

It is, however, unclear if the EC will extend the registration to capture those wishing to be eligible first-time voters but who could not register during the just-ended 10-day exercise.

Clearly, there is mixed reaction as to whether or not the EC should extend the exercise across the country. 

Notwithstanding the lack of consensus now, in order not to disenfranchise any eligible voter, a carefully thought-through process is needed to quickly fashion the way forward.

To address the inadequacies in the whole process, it is the view of the Daily Graphic that as a short-term measure, the various political parties, as well as relevant stakeholders, must dialogue with the EC to arrive at a consensus on the way forward.

In the medium-to-long term, it is our view that the proposal for continuous registration currently at various stages of discussion between the EC and the political parties must be taken more seriously.

The Daily Graphic encourages the EC to speed up plans for the implementation of the all-year continuous registration of eligible voters.

In so doing, it needs to take another critical look at the Constitutional Instrument 91 (CI 91) that regulates the whole registration exercise and which allows for the continuous registration of eligible voters.

This will allow any prospective voter who, for any reason, could not get his or her name on the register to have an opportunity to do so.

With barely six months to this year’s elections, the EC needs to remain purposeful and focused to organise incident-free, fair and transparent polls whose outcome will be acceptable to all stakeholders.

There is more work to be done to ensure the country has a clean and credible electoral register for the polls and the EC cannot afford to keep its eyes away from the ball.

At this stage, all efforts must be made to avoid the mistakes encountered during the 2012 elections which ended in a petition at the Supreme Court.

In all of this, the EC must work to guarantee fairness to all, while the political parties work in concert  to build confidence and trust in the whole electoral process.