Former General Secretary of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) Dan Kwaku Botwe says the cost of a more credible electoral register would be better than possible chaos that may occur during and after the 2016 general elections.
“You cannot compare lives and properties that would be destroyed to the money that will be spent for a credible register,” Dan Botwe said.
Dan Kwaku Botwe, one of the most respected political figures in the country, was speaking Wednesday on Adom FM’s “Burning Issues” programme hosted by Afia Pokua.
The Okere legislator and Minority Chief Whip in Parliament said the national interest and peaceful nation should be at the heart of discussions on the voters’ register – not the money that will be spend on the credible register and elections.
Dan Botwe was reacting to arguments by the ruling National Democratic Congress’ (NDC) that it would cost the state too much to compile a new register.
The NPP and other political parties and civil society groups have are pushing the Electoral Commission (EC) for a new and credible voters’ register.
They say current register is bloated with names of minors and foreigners. The NDC and the Peoples National Convention (PNC) are against the call for a new register.
Dan Botwe says NDC’s argument that compiling a new register would cost the nation is moot because the John Mahama-led administration has wasted money on less important things.
“Since day one in our democracy, we always get assistance from our partners if the need arises” the MP for Okere said.
But the Director of Elections of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Samuel Ofosu-Ampofo disagrees with Dan Botwe.
According to Ofosu-Ampofo, getting a new register is a huge cost to his party [NDC] because monies that will be invested for its agents to monitor the process is huge.
“If you do analysis of the current almost 30,000 polling station across the country and the number of agents that will be deployed by my party to monitor the process is a huge cost to our party that’s our concern” Ofosu-Ampofo stated.
“I do not believe that throwing the current voter’s register away for a new one is the panacea for a credible elections,” he said.
Meanwhile, the EC is set to meet the various political parties and other key stakeholders next week on the controversies surrounding the current voters’ register.
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