NDC opposes new voters’ register by EC

The National Democratic Congress (NDC) has kicked against any plans by the Electoral Commission (EC) to compile a new voter roll ahead of the 2020 presidential and parliamentary elections.

According to the party, they will resist any attempt by the EC to push the idea of a new register since there is not enough grounds for the creation of a new one.

The Electoral Commission on Wednesday, March 27, 2019 announced that it will compile a new voters’ register for the 2020 Presidential and Parliamentary Elections in Ghana.

After the IPAC meeting, EC boss Jean Mensah, stated that a limited registration of new voters prior to District Level Elections and a Referendum in May 2019, will also take place in all district offices of the Commission across the country.

According to a statement by the EC, this consensus was reached following an inter-party advisory committee meeting held Wednesday, March 27.

However responding in an interview with Francis Abban on the Morning Starr Thursday, the director of elections of the NDC, Bede-Zieding said the matter of a new voter was just said in passing at an IPAC meeting by the EC chair without any concrete deliberations.

“At the meeting, the agenda included among other things a 2019 District Level Elections and referendum, inspections of offices of political parties and compliance with audit requirements, these three items were discussed at the meeting. It did not include a compilation of a new voter register for the 2020 general elections,” he said.

According to him, the compilation of a new register ahead of the 2020 general election was not discussed at the meeting.

“The NDC does not endorse the proposal to develop a new voter register to replace the existing new. We do not support the compilation of a new voter register because there is not enough grounds for it.

“The law says for a new register to be created it should be on the basis of a census and there is no new census. Secondly the law says the the existing register should have been 10 years or more before a new one can be done and the current one will be 10 years in 2020 so there is no basis for a new one,” he added.