2020 polls will be violent without a new voters’ register – Kyei Mensah Bonsu warns

Majority Leader in Parliament Hon. Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu has explained that the incessant calls for a new voters’ register for the country by the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and other groups ahead of the 2020 polls is to avert violence.

“The electoral System is expired therefore, if we don’t take care and use the same register in the upcoming elections, there will be chaos”, Mr. Kyei Mensah who is also the Member of Parliament(MP) for Suame Constituency in the Ashanti Region warned.

According to him, there is the need for the country to have a new voters’ register so that all parties can accept the results of the 2020 elections being it the victor or the vanquished.

But the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) insists that there is no need to compile a new register because the current one is credible enough to hold the elections.

This comes at the back of several rebuttals by the Electoral Commission (EC) on many occasions that the current register is bloated and not credible enough to be used in the upcoming elections.

In the latest Press Release by the EC, it stated that the commission is determined to compile a new voters’ register amidst the outbreak of the Coronavirus pandemic.

The Commission further promises that it will put proper measures in place to abide by the social distancing protocols laid down by the president in the event of the compilation of the register, adding that Ghanaians are not going to be exposed to any danger.

However, speaking in an interview with Otec Fm in Kumasi, Mr. Kyei Bonsu emphasized, “We want to have a credible voter register for the election so that all parties will accept the outcome of the elections”.

“the other thing that makes the voters’ register dangerous to be used in an election is that, currently, all equipment / computers used for the process have expired”.

The Minister of Parliamentary Affairs indicated that, in recent elections, people who tried to transfer their votes ended up losing their names from the register.