EC c’mttee did not suggest validation process – Rev. Asante

Chairman of National Peace Council and a member of the V.C.R.C Committee, Most Rev. Prof. Emmanuel Asante has discredited claims that the five-member panel set up by the Electoral Commission (EC) to look into concerns over the credibility of the voters’ register recommended a validation process.

According to him, the understanding of the committee members as at the time of drafting the report was for the EC to put in place mechanisms for those names which are not supposed to be in the register to be deleted but not to use validation to achieve that.

On pages 20 and 21 of its 77-page report, the Committee recommended voter validation as a means of ensuring a clean voters’ register ahead of the November 2016 polls.

But speaking to Joy News, Rev. Asante said: “I don’t really recall us dwelling on that term validation, we might have used it”, adding there are several ways the EC can go about cleaning the register.

He continued that, “My understanding of the whole thing is that we want to make sure that the names that are in there are supposed to be there and peoples whose names should not be in there are deleted.”

To ensure a clean voters’ register, Rev. Asante said there will be the need for a “proper voter exhibition” adding the Committee has suggested to the EC to extend the voter exhibition exercise to at least a week to enable Ghanaians crosscheck their names.

In the past few months, officials and pressure groups linked to the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) have pressured the EC to implement the report of the
Committee especially the recommendation relating to voter validation.

On April 6, a pro-NPP pressure group, Let My Vote Count Alliance (LMVCA) demonstrated in Kumasi in what it described as the last attempt to put pressure on the EC to implement the Committee recommendations.

Responding to the claim by Rev. Asante, spokesperson for LMVCA, Ibrahim Agyei expressed worry adding the Committee member’s action shows he is not aware of the detail of the report.

Source: Myjoyonline.com