New voters register will disenfranchise million Ghanaians - Otokunor

Deputy General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Peter Boamah Otokunor has revealed that should the Electoral Commission (EC) go on with the compilation of the new voters’ register, the majority of Ghanaians will lose their right to vote in the 2020 general elections.

According to him, this will happen if the EC is allowed to compile the new voters’ register using passports and the national identification card as the only requirement for getting citizens registered onto the electoral roll.

He mentioned this in an interview on Happy 98.9 FM’s Happy Morning Show with host, Samuel Eshun. Peter Otokunor said, “We have around 17million people on the old voters’ register but if the new register is compiled, only 8million Ghanaians can vote in the upcoming election.”

Breaking the numbers down, the politician disclosed that currently, there are around 19million eligible voters in the country. He noted that a little over 2million Ghanaians have passports but 1million out of the number are eligible voters. And regardless of the NIA having registered 11 million people, only 7 million people have received their national identification cards. “When we add this numbers, then, only 8million Ghanaians can vote in the 2020 general elections,” he explained.

The politician furthered that the other parties were surprised seeing a document the EC presented to parliament which could cause this problem without consulting the Interparty Advisory Committee (IPAC). “The EC didn’t consult us before presenting a document that would require Ghanaians to present either a passport or national identification card to get registered on the new voters’ register,” he reiterated.

The politician noted that the NDC is motivated to prevent the compilation of the new voters’ register to stop the attempt of the commission to exclude eligible Ghanaians from the electoral roll.

The National Democratic Congress together with other political parties and some Civil Society Organizations have fought the EC’s idea of compiling a new voters’ register from the genesis. The NDC has accused the NPP and the EC for having dubious intent to compile the register whilst the NPP claims the new register is meant to get first-time voters unto the voter roll.