We’ll use legitimate means to stop EC on compilation of voter roll - NDC

The National Democratic Congress (NDC) says it will adopt legitimate means to prevent the Electoral Commission (EC) from compiling a new voters register.

“We will do everything possible through legitimate means to protect Ghana’s democracy,” the party’s General Secretary, Mr Johnson Asiedu Nketia, told the Daily Graphic in an interview Thursday.

EC road map

Responding to questions on the roadmap announced by the EC on the mass voter registration exercise, he said the mere announcement did not mean it had been or would be implemented.

He, therefore, appealed to Ghanaians, including the media, to join the NDC to prevent the EC from leading Ghana’s democracy on a dangerous path.

Mr Nketia said the party would engage in public education for the electorate to appreciate the position of the NDC so that they support the party’s course of action.

The NDC, he said, was already at the Supreme Court challenging the EC over the exclusion of the Voter ID card as a form of identification for the forthcoming registration exercise.

Mr Nketia said the party’s disagreement with the EC was just beginning to lay bare.

Timelines

He stated that the timelines announced by the EC were unworkable and also in potential breach of the law.

He explained that even when the EC had originally scheduled the voter registration for April 18 to May 2020, it had indicated that the register was going to be ready on November 8.

Mr Nketia said with the delayed schedule, he wondered when the register would be ready.

Moreover, he said, the filing of nominations should be taking place in September and wondered if the register would be ready at that time.

He said beyond the filing of nominations, the issue of special voting for security agencies, the media and other officials playing key roles in the elections should also be considered.

That, he said, was why every Ghanaian must see the challenges ahead as recipe for chaos, hence the need to be involved.

Mr Nketia said in speaking to the issues, the NDC would be pointing out what it felt the EC was not doing right, especially constitutional breaches.

He said the party would, therefore, continue to publicly voice those breaches and use legitimate processes to stop the EC from going ahead to compile a new register.

IPAC

He said he was happy not to have even attended the Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC) meeting because the EC only passed on the information to those who attended.

That kind of information, he said, could have been communicated to the political parties through official means other than calling them to a meeting.

Mr Nketia said the current EC had turned the IPAC forum into one where the EC informed election stakeholders of its decisions rather than a forum that allowed for dialogue and consensus.