The remote-controlled Electoral Commission, EC of Ghana has again defied all calls by discerning Ghanaians that it should not shroud its work in secrecy, especially at this crucial election moment to raise credibility defiicit.
The EC clandestinely removed about 30, 000 names of Ghanaian voters from the register with the support from the ruling NPP without knowledge of the major opposition parrties.
The suspicion has it that as part of their rigging scheme EC refused to make disclosure of the full list and detail information or published who these people were. To this, “CARE” GHANA is considering going to Court to for EC to do right thing.
In a statement issued in Accra, a Civil Society Organisation debbed Care for Free and Fair Elections Ghana “CARE” GHANA, challenged the Jean Mensah/Bossman Aware led Electoral Commission, EC to make available a full list and detail information of the disqualify persons if it is not a deliberate attempt by the EC to disenfranchised a section of Ghanaians for no apparent reasons.
“CARE” GHANA further indicated that EC’s move is creating fear, panic and anxiety among many innocent eligible voters who are not certain whether they are part of these disqualified persons or not.
According to the Executive Secretary of “CARE” GHANA, David Kimi Addo stated their Organisation has followed the pronouncement of EC on the 25th October, 2020 on the 30,000 names and or individuals who have been disqualified and prevented from participating in the December 7, 2020 general elections.
He also argued that the EC claimed that among the 30,000 disqualified, 14,000 were individuals whose disqualification were as a result of registering after the period of registration. “This is strange because among the reasons informing the EC’s decision for the need for a new voter’sregister was to provide a robust system that cannot be infiltrated or manipulated”, Kumi Addo opined.
To this effect, Care for Free and Fair Elections Ghana “CARE” GHANA write to request of the EC the following:
- Full disclosure of the 30, 000 names allegedly expunged from the provisional register.
- Immediate publication of the full list and detailed information of the said names.
- Explanation of the meaning of the term ‘Registration outside stipulated time’
- Explanation of how the 14,000 individuals got registered outside the stipulated time,
- Full disclosure of persons behind this criminal conduct if indeed it did happened
- The measures taken by the EC to investigate and prosecute perpetrators of this criminal act.
The Executive Secretary, CARE GHANA lamented that, “the difficulty of not publishing these alleged names in advance of the elections day could create inconvenience and as well create chaos at the polling stations if potential voters later discover their disqualification only at the point of voting”.
He added saying “the EC stated that the register has been increased by some 44,430 following the exhibition exercise; This is because, before the exhibition exercise the Electoral Commission publicly announced that it had registered 16,963,306 applicants”.
However, Kumi Addo explained that after the exhibition exercise the figure mysteriously changed to 17,007,026, and till now the EC is yet to furnish the public with any explanation as to how that came about.
“CARE” GHANA finds this development unfortunate as same has the potential of deepening the perception of bias and the lack of impartiality on the part of the EC by some key political players and a section of the society.
“CARE” GHANA is by the correspondence demanding explanation from EC as to the post-exhibition increase in the number of names on the register to ensure transparency, accountability and integrity of the Commission and the electoral process.
Care for Free and Fair Elections Ghana “CARE”GHANA also challenged Jean Mensah and Bossman Asare led Electoral Commission to provide answers to the above request so as to help assuage the anxiety and suspicion among majority of key stakeholders and the general public.
