<<Print>>

When the Electoral Commission (EC) meets with the Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC), which compromises of representatives from political parties with representation in parliament today, whether or not there is the need for a new voters register ahead of the 2016 general elections will feature, this paper has learnt.

The IPAC meeting has been necessitated amongst other things, by New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) petition to the EC over their astonishing revelations and presentation on how the voters register used for the 2012 general elections is suspected to have been padded with overwhelming numbers of foreign voters running into several thousands.

The NPP made the claim for new voters register last Monday at a press meeting in Accra, after it had early on the same day presented their evidence of claim to the Chairperson of the EC Mrs. Charlotte Osei.

The NPP claimed that the 2012 voters register is “fundamentally flawed” and therefore called for a completely new register to ensure a free and credible elections in 2016.

The party also cited instances in the past where the former EC Boss Dr. Kwadwo Afari Djan himself is on record to have stated in2008 that, “If our population is indeed 22 million, then perhaps 13 million people on our register would be statistically unacceptable by world standards. If that is the case, then it may mean that there is something wrong with our register.”

President John Dramani Mahama, then a vice presidential candidate in 2008 was also quoted as saying;“With the current national population of 22 million, having almost 13 million people on the voters register is unheard of."

The NPP also recounted an instance when President Mahama urged the Togolese authorities to agree to establish a credible voters’ register with his (Prez Mahama) arguing, that it was important Togo went into the election with a register which enjoyed the confidence of all parties.

Again, they indicated that“We agree with now President Mahama and Chairman AfariGyan’sobservation in 2008 that a voters’ register containing 12,472,758 out of a population of 22,000,000, a registration rate of 56.69% is statistically unacceptable… by extension, we submit that the 56.20% voter population in 2012, for the population of 25,000,000 persons, must equally be unacceptable by world standards.”

On the other hand, the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) appears to have been bruised badly at their sore spot ever since the NPP stated their case on the bloated register and has not stopped buzzing and whining over NPP’s claims.