It Is Total Confusion To Combine Exhibition Exercise With Re-Registration - Karbo Fires EC

The Electoral Commission (EC) appears to be handling the exhibition of the provisional voters’ register in a haphazard manner, according to the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP).

The NPP is unhappy with the Commission’s decision to run the exhibition exercise concurrently with the re-registration of persons whose names have been deleted from the register in line with recent the Supreme Court order.

Deputy Communications Director of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Anthony Karbo has expressed his displeasure about the decision taken by the Electoral Commission (EC) to conduct the exhibition exercise alongside re-registration of persons who used National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) cards as identity during the previous registration.

To him “The EC has rushed the process, and this is what they have been maintaining ever since we started talking about the uprightness of the voters register for the up-coming elections, but the EC failed to meet its time line and all these measures that have been put in place after the so-called deletion.”

According to him it is absolutely unacceptable for the EC to say that for example in the Lawra Constituency only 6 or 7 persons registered with the NHIS cards.

“Are they saying for instance that the rest of the people either registered with the other required identities needed for registration? This is a palatable falsehood,” he said.

Speaking to CITI FM news, he emphatically stated that “Clearly there are systematic problems regarding the register which has not been addressed, but the EC is behaving and acting in a way to get public believe that something is being done . . . I think that we still have a major problem on our hand as far as cleaning the register for the election is concerned, but this haphazard measures put in place for this exercise to run together with the deletion and re-registration is a mass of confusion.”

“Already there is very little publicity about the exercise on the exhibition itself how much more adding the re-registration,” he noted.

The Electoral Commission (EC) on Monday began the exhibition of the voters' register to give the electorate the opportunity to verify their personal details ahead of the general election.

The exercise, which is expected to run till August 7, 2016, will also allow persons whose names have been deleted from the register for using National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) cards to register to re-register, in line with a Supreme Court ruling.