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As the opposition New Patriotic Party was hoping to win the support of Ghanaians with it’s supposed “smoking gun” evidence revealing how the current electoral register is incurably flawed and bloated, to consolidate its call for a new voters’ register, the case seem rather otherwise.

Majority of Ghanaians, though would not give a total clean bill of health to the current electoral register, nevertheless, have kicked against calls by the NPP for the Electoral Commission to compile a new register to for the 2016 general elections.

From the immediate past EC boss, Dr Kwadwo AfariGyan, to a former EC Chairman, Justice VCRA Crabbe; CODEO, election watchers, civil society groups, other political parties; the EC to Ghanaians in general, the voters’ register need not be replaced but should rather be audited.

Although most of those against the compilation of a new register have acknowledged the present register might have some challenges, they nonetheless, argue the evidence the NPP presented to support its call for a new register can be solved without necessarily compiling a new register for the next election.

Supporting the EC’s position that it would be waste of state resources to compile a new register, Dr Afari Gyan has long rubbished allegations that the voters’ register is bloated and ought to be replaced with a credible one.

Speaking at the maiden edition of the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) Dialogue series last year, DrAfariGyan stated "I don't think the register is bloated, besides I don't know what auditing of the register means".

Sharing same sentiment, respected former EC boss and former Justice of the Supreme Court, Justice VCRA Crabbe, stated that it would be needless to compile a new register over difficulties that can be resolved by just auditing the register.

The Justice VCRA Crabbe was recently quoted as saying “When you register the people you have what we call the provisional register, that’s where the work should be done, that’s where you exhibit the registers because the electoral commission does not know everything, and it says I have registered people come and tell me who should be or not be on the register,” he said.

Civil Society groups, including the Coalition of Domestic Election Observers (CODEO), Institute of Democratic Governance (IDEG), Centre for Democratic Governance among others have kicked against demands by the NPP for a new voters’ register.

Deputy Director of the CDD, Dr Franklin Oduro, has stated that a new voters’ register will not guarantee credible polls.
According to him minors and double registration, which affects the credibility of the voters register, will still happen if a new register is compiled.

Reacting to the NPP’s call for a new voter’s register, DrOduro said, “Doing a new voters’ register doesn’t mean we are not going to encounter problems that we may have in the current register… who are the people who encourage minors to go and register? And when it gets to the exhibition stage where parties are supposed to help clean and identify those that are not eligible to register, we don’t find them.”

Pollsters and Managing Editor of Daily Dispatch, Ben Ephson, on the other hand, has also reiterated same sentiment, saying “One reason why I don’t think a new register will cure the problem [of a bloated voters’ register] is that the biometric [voting] system cannot identify by fingerprint those who are minors.”

The NPP at a recent press conference called for the compilation of a new voters’ register to replace the existing one, saying that there was overwhelming evidence that the current register was incurably flawed and bloated.

According to the party, investigations conducted by a team it put together pointed to the fact that there could not be free, fair, transparent and credible elections in the country using the existing register.

The party’s 2016 running mate, Dr Mahamadu Bawumia stated that software it procured to audit the register revealed that over 76,000 names of Togolese nationals are on Ghana’s electoral register.

But, at a similar press conference and in swift reaction to the NPP press conference, General Secretary of the ruling NDC, Johnson Asiedu Nketsia, downplayed assertions by the main opposition party, arguing that statements by the NPP suggesting that some foreigners vote in the country should not be entertained.

“If it is now that they have identified these names, they should go and use the same procedure. The door is not closed and that should not be the reason why we should throw away a credible register, they should go and prove that there are people there who are not supposed to be there and they will be deleted,” he said.

The People’s National Convention also said a new voters’ register would not necessarily guarantee a free and fair election in 2016.

According to its general secretary, Mr Bernard Monah, a new register might still have names of foreigners if adequate measures were not put in place to purge it. He argued that instead of creating a new register, the EC should rather aim at purging the present register.

Aside the NPP, none of the political parties in the country has official protested against the current register.

Meanwhile, Chairperson of the Electoral Commission, Mrs. Charlotte Kesson-Smith Osei, at a press briefing after an IPAC meeting to deliberate the NPP’s demands for a new register said, the commission has given all registered parties in the country up to 21st September to submit their proposals on the voter register.

In a related development, the new EC boss warned that the election managing agency would not kowtow to pressures from any political party in the discharge of its constitutional role.
She has also given all political parties up the end of December this year to comply with the political parties’ law of 2005 or face sanctions