Official: EC suspends April 2020 voter registration exercise

The Electoral Commission (EC) has postponed the upcoming voter's registration until further notice. This is as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The EC said it would review the decision at the end of April or early May this year.

It had originally fixed April 18, 2020, for the commencement of the compilation of a new voters register.

Briefing the press after an Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC) meeting yesterday, the Director of Electoral Services at the EC, Dr Serebour Quaicoe, said the decision would be reviewed in collaboration with health experts from the Ministry of Health.

"We told them (the political parties) that we had planned to do the registration on April 18, but because of the pandemic, we cannot do it on the 18th.

"So we are observing what is happening around Ghana and global issues. We are with the Ministry of Health, the Ghana Health Service and other experts. They are also monitoring the situation and advising us, so when it gets to a time when they think the situation is fertile, they will tell us... It has been suspended, it can’t be 18th April,” he said.

No return to existing register

Dr Serebour, however, maintained that the EC made it clear at the IPAC meeting that there was no possibility that the existing register would be used for the 2020 presidential and parliamentary elections.

"From all the discussions that we have had, we are saying that there is no way we can use the existing register," he said.

He said all the registration supervisors and key trainers had already been recruited and procurement contract letters issued to selected vendors to supply items to build a new election management system for the new voters registration exercise.

IPAC Meeting

Sixteen political parties were officially invited by the EC to attend the IPAC meeting, which had the compilation of the new electoral register on top of the agenda.

As part of precautionary measures to prevent the spread of the COVID-19, the parties were divided into two groups for the meeting.

The first group consisted of a representative each from the New Patriotic Party (NPP), the National Democratic Congress (NDC), the Convention People’s Party (CPP), the Progressive People's Party (PPP), the People's National Convention (PNC), the Liberal Party of Ghana (LPG), the Ghana Consolidated People's Party (GCPP) and the Ghana Union Movement (GUM).

The second session included a representative each from the EGLE Party, the United Front Party (UFP), the Ghana Freedom Party (GFP), the National Democratic Party (NDP), the All People's Congress (APC), the United Progressive Party (UPP), the United Freedom Party (UFP) and the Power United Party (PUP).

Drama

The meeting was not without drama, as the National Chairman of the PNC, Mr Bernard Mornah, was denied access to the meeting because the party’s General Secretary, Mr Atik Mohammed, was already at the meeting before he (Mornah) got to the venue.

Mr Mornah wondered why the EC had invited Mr Atik to the meeting when he (Mornah) was to represent the PNC.

But Mr Atik said the invite was sent to him as the General Secretary of the party and expressed surprise at Mr Mornah’s reaction.

According to him, the invite was usually sent to the general secretaries, and depending on the topic or issues to be discussed, different personalities were sent.

He cited the presence of the General Secretary of the NPP, Mr John Boadu, and the Deputy General Secretary of the NDC, Mr Peter Boamah Otokunor, who later boycotted the meeting, to buttress his position.

Walkouts

Representatives of three political parties which are members of the Inter-Party Resistance against the New Voters Register (IPRAN) staged walkouts after registering their protest during the meeting.

The NDC, represented by Mr Otokunor, said the division of IPAC into two groups defeated the purpose of the body, which thrived on consensus building.

He said meeting at a bigger venue would have been a better alternative.

"I don’t see how consensus will be built when we are having the meeting in tranches," Mr Otukunor said.

"We wrote to them and made a case that in compliance with the directives by the President, we should meet in a bigger auditorium. We have seen the President have meetings in the Jubilee House with more than 25 people.

“We cannot be part of this Kangaroo meeting, so we have decided to walk out of the meeting. We wanted to place that on record; we had written to the EC and have not received any response," he added.

The National Organiser of the EGLE Party, Mr David Arthur, and the General Secretary of the APC, Mr Mordecai Thiombian, also walked out of the second session, accusing the EC of having an entrenched position with regard to the compilation of a new register.

They said the meeting was not to engage the parties but just a briefing on decisions that the EC had already taken.

Support for EC

Mr Boadu of the NPP said the safety of the citizenry was of utmost importance and accused the NDC of "misbehaving" during the meeting.

"They (NDC) have already decided to make it difficult for the EC to do its work. What bigger venue? They said we shouldn't have more than 25 people meeting; if we have a bigger venue, how many people are going to meet?" he asked.

The General Secretary of the NDP, Alhaji Mohammed Frimpong, for his part, expressed the party’s support for the decision of the EC to introduce a new voter management system.