The Minority caucus in Parliament has expressed worry and disappointment about the decision by the Electoral Commission to phase out registration exercise in 6,300 centres out of the total of 33,367 registration centres across the country.
Minority Leader, Hon Haruna Iddrisu spoke to Journalists at Parliament House about the issue just after the Chairperson of the EC, Mrs Jean Mensa met the Special Budget Committee of Parliament Tuesday morning, to brief the Committee about its preparation towards the December 7 election.
Haruna Iddrisu said phasing out the registration exercise in 6,300 registration centres will breach article 42 of the Constitution which guarantees the legitimate right of citizens.
The Minority Leader further said "the EC Chairperson told the Special Budget Committee it does not intend to use data of the National Identification Authority (NIA) but will use it only for purpose of identity".
He said the "Minority feels very concerned about the future" of the registration exercise.
He said the NDC is still opposed to the decision by the EC to compile a new voters' register as the Minority and the NDC see no legal and technical justification for the compilation of a new voters' register for the December 7 election.
Registration Exercise
The Electoral Commission has written to political parties to inform them of the impending voter registration scheduled to begin on June 30, 2020.
A letter signed by the Deputy Chairman, Corporate Services, Dr. Bossman E. Asare to the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) said "This letter comes to inform you that the 2020 Voters Registration Exercise has been scheduled to commence on Tuesday, the 30th of June, 2020. The registration will be held at all Registration Centres and District Offices of the Electoral Commission throughout the country."
EC Budget
Parliament approved the over GHS 390 million budget the Electoral Commission needs to compile the new voters' register ahead of the polls in December 2020.
Documents provided indicate that the EC’s budget will be spent on procurement, recruitment, training, data processing, publicity and allowances.
The EC’s Head of Communications, Sylvia Annor said the Commission has provided enough evidence and defense to support their claims for the budget.
“The Electoral Commission has given certain figures to back the argument that we are raising. When we are talking about cost, in 2017, during the limited registration exercise, we spent GHC 487,980,714.
"Now the 2020 registration is expected to cost GHC 390, 265, 486 which is even cheaper than the limited registration conducted in 2016. And when you talk about the obsolete nature of the system, we spent 2 million ghana cedis to refurbish the old system and the vendor indicated in the report that going forward, we either need to acquire a new system and the upgrade was going to cost us more,” she said.
The break down of the GHS 390 million budget is as follows; Parliament approved GHS1.3 billion for the Electoral Commissions activities for the year, as compared to the GHS 1.8 billion approved in 2016.
Also, more than GHS161 million will be spent on an official who will undertake the registration exercise as allowance and GHS 156 million is expected to be the cost of procurement materials.
Source: Emmanuel Akorli/ Peace FM Parliamentary Correspondent
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COMMON SENSE, SOMETIMES NOT COMMON TO SOME OF US. IS IT MANDATORY TO COMPILE BIOMETRIC REGISTER? IS IT POSSIBLE TO USE MANUAL REGISTER DURING COVID 19 ERRA? IS IT POSSIBLE TO DELETE AND CLEAN BIOMTRIC OR CURRENT MANUAL REGISTER? IF INDEED A WHOLE MINISTER OF HEALTH CONTRACT COVID 19 EVEN AFTER OBSERVING ALL THE PROTOCOLS, IT SOUND TO REASON THAT YOU DO NOT ENGAGE IN ACTIVITIES THIS TIME OF OUR EXISTENCE AS HUMANS WITH PROPER INTELLECT TO COMPOUND THE SPREAD COVID. AS A PEOPLE CAN WE POSTPONED THE COMPILATION OF THE REGISTER, YES WE CAN. EVEN THE ELECTION CAN LEGALLY BE POSTPONED. GHANA WILL NOT BURNT BY LEGALLY POSTPONING THE ELECTION. IF YOU HAVE THE VIRUS, IT TAKE THE GRACE TO SURVIVE. YOU CANNNOT GAMBLE WITH HUMAN LIFE. IN 1992,96, 2000,2004 GHANAIANS HAVE VOTED WITHOUT BIOMETRIC REGISTER. THE ELECTION WAS ACCLAIMED FREE AND FAIR. WHY ARE FIXATED WITH COMPILING A NEW BIOMETRIC REGISTER THIS TIME AROUND. ITS GOOD TO HAVE A BIOMETRIC REGISTER, YOU DO NOT NEED TO KILL YOURSELF TO HAVE BIOMETRIC REGISTER NOW. I AM NOT SURPRISED GOD IS SPEAKING TO GHANAIANS THROUGH VARIOUS MEDIUMS AND SIGNS. NO WONDER A WHOLE HEALTH MINISTER, MAYOR, NHIS BOSS ALL HAD THE VIRUS VIRTUALLY SAME TIME AFTER CI 121 MATURED. WANTED TO KNOW IF COVID 19 CONTACT TRACERS HAVE PICKED UP PERSONS WHO HAD PERSONAL CONTACT WITH THE HEALTH MINISTER ie CARBINET MINISTERS, PRESIDENT AND OTHER MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT. OR I GUESS THEY HAVE DIFFERENT SETS OF RULES GOVERNING THE POWERS BE? IN ANY CIVILIZED JURISDICTION , THE HEALTH MINISTER WOULD HAVE OPENLY ANNOUNCED HIS COVID 19 STATUS AND TASKED OTHER GHANAIANS HE HAD CONTACTS WITH TO EQUALLY ISOLATE,. HE WICKEDLY HID HIS CONDITIONS AND CARE LITTLE ABOUT POTENTIAL IMPLICATIONS OF HIS WICKED CONDUCT. HIS DRIVER, SECURITY MEN, MAID,ERRAND BOYS, CONSTITUENTS, OTHER HEALTH WORKERS ,CABINET MINISTERS WERE ALL EXPOSED. HIS PRIORITIZES HIS PERSONAL INTEREST AHEAD OF POTENTIAL DANGERS OF HIS WORKERS AND GHANAIANS AT LARGE. THIS IS JUST SHEER WICKEDNESS. GOD SAVE GHANA FROM THESES WICKED POLITICIANS FROM SUCKING OUR BLOOD.
This shows grossed incompetent with leadership crisis. It’s too late to waste your energy on EC and registration please change your strategy by naming your running mate and bring out your manifesto
Is that the hierarchy of the minority? Are they aware of the WHO protocol of physical distancing? Wii! I that the kind of Minority leadership we have? No doubt.......
The NDC is now just pathetic.
NDC IS MISGUIDED ABOUT THE DUTY OF EC ON REGISTRATION. THEY SEE THE DUTY OF EC AS TO REGISTER ALL QUALIFIED GHANAIANS. NDC FAILS TO SEE THE DUTY OF EC AS TO REGISTER ONLY ALL QUALIFIED GHANAIANS. THAT IS POOR JUDGEMENT. YES, THE EC MUST REGISTER ALL GHANAIANS, BUT EC MUST ALSO REGISTER ONLY GHANAIANS. IT IS UP TO EVERY GHANAIAN TO ACCESS THE AVAILABLE AND THE REQUIRED PROVISIONS TO PROVE ONE'S CITIZENSHIP TO EC IN ORDER TO GET REGISTERED. I AM A GHANAIAN. I AM MORE THAN 18YRS. I AM OF SOUND MIND. MAKE BIG CONTRIBUTION TO GHANA ECONOMY. TAKE CARE OF MANY IN SCHOOLS. I LIVE OUTSIDE GHANA AND CANNOT ACCESS THE AVAILABLE PROVISIONS TO GET REGISTERED NOW. BECAUSE OF THIS GHANA SHOULD BURN. NO WAY. REASONING MUST GIVE WAY TO REALITY OF LIFE.
Care must be taken to open the NIA registration again to make provision for some of us who were not able to procure the card during the first period. We shall want to vote oooooooo!
When headache becomes a pandemic ,crabs are not affected. You and your cohorts refuse to take part in the recent inter-party meeting hence the lack of understanding of the process and decision to reduce the centres.If indeed it is a breach of the 1992 constitution then go to court and stop your party childish behaviour. Teletubbies.