EC: Ghanaians Abroad Can’t Vote In 2012 Elections

Ghanaians living outside the borders of Ghana cannot vote in this year’s presidential and parliamentary elections, the Electoral Commission (EC) has served notice.

According to the electoral body, all Ghanaians living abroad who are bent on voting in the December elections have to return home to register in the ongoing biometric voters registration exercise.

The EC is compiling a new voters’ register for the December 7 polls and with the new biometric register, the old identity cards will be nullified.

The current position of the EC means that all Ghanaians of voting age will have to come down to register, go back and return again when the election is due to vote.

The acting Director of Public Affairs of the EC, Christian Owusu Parry, was emphatic on the issue saying all eligible Ghanaian voters living outside the country have no option than to come down to register else they will be disenfranchised.

“They have to come back home to register,” Mr. Parry stressed.

In a related development, the Globe newspaper last week also quoted ICT experts of the EC to have said they “are yet to find a way” of extending the ballot to registered voters who wish to vote by proxy during this year’s polls.

For decades, proxy voting has been used by registered Ghanaians outside the jurisdiction or persons bedridden on the day of national polls.

“This is something that is on the drawing board because the process of voting has been changed by the introduction of the verification machine,” IT chief at the EC, Hubert Akomea told the newspaper.

“In the past you can cast your vote – because it is a manual system – and then ask to cast the second one for your proxy, your wife or whoever.

“But with the biometric verification, the system allows you to vote only if it is able to authenticate you, meaning giving you chance to vote once. Therefore, you cannot come back to vote,” he said.

Source: Citifmonline.com