We don’t support new voters’ register idea – NDC to EC

The Main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) has rejected the proposal by the Electoral Commission to compile a new voters register for the 2020 elections.

The Electoral Commission has served notice a new voters’ register will be compiled ahead of the 2020 presidential and parliamentary elections.

The Electoral Management Body is currently inspecting offices of political parties, according to a press statement after an Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC) meeting Wednesday.

The call for a new voters’ roll was made ahead of the 2016 elections which culminated in a series of demonstrations by the Let My Vote Count Alliance. However, due to financial constraints the EC failed to heed the call.

After meeting stakeholders over the issue, the EC said a new register will be used for the next general elections.

Speaking to 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.

He said the party 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 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 said.