New voters’ register will never happen – Asiedu Nketia

The General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), has said it’s not possible for the Electoral Commission (EC) to compile a new voters’ register ahead of the 2020 general elections.
Asiedu Nketia
Asiedu Nketia

He said the government and the EC want to plunge the country into chaos.

Speaking on Accra-based Okay FM, he said: “Let me emphasize that we have not reached there yet; the registration will never take place today or tomorrow because when you listen to comments by the EC and the government, it’s obvious they want to throw our democracy into confusion, otherwise they would have retracted and retreated from their unreasonable stance.”

Giving reasons why compiling a new voters’ register is impossible, Asiedu Nketia said “we were in this country when the NPP organized some people from abroad and they went to court that it is compulsory for the EC to register every Ghanaian irrespective of where they reside to take part in the elections of the country.

“The court ruled in their favour that it is mandated on the EC to every single qualified Ghanaian to vote in the country.

“The EC is time-bound to register every Ghanaian to take part in elections. Is that court ruling not applicable to Ghanaians in the country if you are unable to register those abroad due to the COVID-19? Are they not Ghanaians? How can you say that you are going to register someone in England but those in Bolga cannot take part because they don’t have appropriate documents for the registration?”

He said the majority of Ghanaians will be disenfranchised if the EC insists on using only the Ghana card and a valid passport as requirements for the new register.

According to him, about two million of the country’s population own a voters ID – a number which includes children not eligible to vote.

Meanwhile, the EC has been ordered to provide the legal basis of why it decided to refuse to accept the existing voters’ identification card as a form of identification in the upcoming mass voters registration exercise for the 2020 polls.