The NPP and the credible register

An error does not become truth by reason of multiplied propagation, nor does truth become error because nobody sees it. Mahatma Gandhi
We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light. —Plato.

Dr Martin Luther King has postulated that, “our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” That is why all well-meaning Ghanaians must join in the debate about the development of a credible and reliable voters register.

At the heart of the diatribe between the New Patriotic Party’s demands for a new register and the National Democratic Congress’ insistence that it will fight against a new register is the undeniable fact that the register, in its current form, is flawed and deficient.

The NPP has made a number of allegations about weaknesses in the register and no matter how far the NDC disputes these claims it admits, for instance, that the names of minors are in the register.

The remedy for the cure of this defect may neither be in the NPP demands for a new register nor in the puerile presentation from the NDC that because such minors might have grown into the age of maturity, no cause arises for concern.

In as much as a new register by itself cannot guarantee its credibility and dependability it must be said that no amount of explanation can render an illegality lawful and valid. There are punishments for the wrongful entry of unqualified persons into the voters register, for which the solution is not lapse of time but criminal prosecution and the expunging of such names from the register.

Albert Einstein has noted that “whoever is careless with the truth in small matters cannot be trusted with important matters.” Sometimes our politicians are intriguing because of how they change their positions on common matters depending on where they stand. It makes others see politicians as cynics and unprincipled. The fact is that if something is bad, it can never be said to be good depending on whose side one stands.

A voters register, especially one which is the basis of qualification for the exercise of franchise, lies at the heart of credible elections because for as long as one does not have his or her name in the register, one has no right to vote.

Whatever arguments that any Ghanaian might have about calls for a new voters register, it would be shameful to rebut the call by stating that if some people fraudulently got their names into the register when they did not qualify by the age qualification, because some years have passed, those individual deviants must now be regularised. It is criminal for under-aged persons to register to vote. Thus, nothing can assuage the crime, until such people are identified, prosecuted and punished as part of the due process of the law.

We must all be exercised that foreigners could manipulate to get their names on our voters register in the same way that we should be concerned about multiple registrations. Indeed, we must be disturbed about claims that the number of registered voters for the parliamentary polls is fundamentally different from that of the presidential election, when there was a common registration exercise, with every voter registering once.

It means that we must lift the matter beyond the NDC and NPP politics and see the merit or otherwise of the claim. It is not every time that the NPP raises concerns about the register and the electoral processes generally that the NDC must rubbish them without doing any critical evaluation of the legitimacy of the claims. A complaint about the credibility of the register must be a primary responsibility of the Electoral Commission, a constitutional body clothed with independence to take responsibility for its actions and inaction, not the NDC, a political party.

The truth is that there are weaknesses in the voters register. These must be cured. The register must be credible and reliable. A new register may not be the cure or necessary. But there is the need to purge the register of fraud through independent critical auditing to make it acceptable to the majority of Ghanaians, not just what the NPP prays for or NDC insists on.

The Electoral Commission has the power and authority to clean the register of fraudulent and unqualified names.Such names must be expunged such that those individuals who claim to have the right to be registered could establish their claims.

Beyond everything, we have to be seriously committed to a national identification system that could be used for all activities that require our unique identities.

There may be no need for a new register but it cannot be used without review.