EC buying time on new voters register- LMVCA
Pressure group, Let My Vote Count Alliance (LMVCA), has accused the Electoral Commission (EC) of deliberately delaying the processes for a new voters register ahead of the 2016 General Elections.
According to them, the EC Chairperson, Mrs Charlotte Osei has devised a slow-paced approach towards answering the question of whether or not a new register would be made available for the 2016 elections.
Following allegations by the New Patriotic Party (NPP) that the voters register was bloated with foreigners and a demand for a new register, the EC called for proposals from the various political parties on the way forward to a clean, credible register.
At a press conference on Wednesday, the EC Chairperson disclosed that the Commission would meet all registered political parties and stakeholders to dialogue and reach consensus on the voter’s register by the end of October.
A move, LMVCA says “is either an incompetent and superfluous manner of going about dealing with this most important issue or simply a deliberate tactic on the part of the EC to delay taking a decision so that by the time it finally takes one we might all find it practically too late to begin the actual process of getting a new register.”
A statement signed by the group’s convener, David Asante further accused the EC of being dismissive with the matter, and that, “if the EC were truly serious about this matter it would tackle it with apparent urgency. The EC appears to be buying time. It appears indecisive. We expect the new chair to show a far stronger and decisive leadership than we are so far seeing.”
According to LMVCA, the decision for a new voters register should not be based on the number of political parties that would say yes to a new register, but the weight of evidence against the credibility of the existing register.
“The EC must act and act decisively based on the strength of the credible evidence available and that evidence only points to one direction, a new register…This is not a matter of how many members of IPAC are prepared to agree but how substantially flawed or not the current electoral roll may be,” the statement said.
LMVCA further urged the EC to focus more on the evidence before her and deal with the matters before her with the requisite urgency.
Decision to picket
Meanwhile LMVCA has said it would deliver its petition “the way they have chosen to do so” and reminded the EC that, “if it was uncomfortable about a demonstration then we wish to advise her that it could be worse if we end up with a disputed election on our hands in 2016.”
“As a former Chairperson of the National Commission for Civic Education, Mrs Osei, is fully aware that the 1992 Constitution expressly guarantees the right to demonstrate. Article 21(1)(d) of the Constitution grants the “freedom of assembly, including freedom to take part in processions and demonstrations” to every citizen. We hope it is not to suggest that she is against Ghanaians exercising their democratic right to use demonstration as a legitimate means of sending a message to the EC, the body authorised to help give representative meaning to our democracy,” the statement said.
