Compiling A New Register Can Be Opening Up 30,000 Conflict Zones � EC Boss

The Chairperson of the Electoral Commission Mrs. Charlotte Osei says opening up new voter registration centers to compile a new voters’ register can be recipe for chaos.

She said given the entrenched positions adopted by the two main political parties - NPP and NDC – attempting to undertake registration for an entirely new electoral roll may have serious security problems.

This social context of politics cannot be ignored, she said as part of her presentation on the last day of a two-day forum to debate calls for a new voters’ register.

The opposition New Patriotic Party believes the electoral roll used for the 2012 general elections is so “incurably flawed” it cannot be used for next year’s polls.

It is a position the governing National Democratic Congress disagrees with.

The NDC insists the NPP’s claims the register is bloated are unfounded and must be rejected.

Mrs Osei said the EC has received an avalanche of complaints from the NPP which would be addressed in due cause.

She said the EC desires to have a credible voters’ register and will work with the political parties and civil society organisations to get one.

A fundamental question, she said, however remains; do Ghanaians want a credible register?

“If the people and the stakeholders do not want a credible register, we won’t have one,” she stressed.

She said minors who find their names on the electoral roll must together with their parents be sanctioned.

“If we sanction a few minors and their parents, it will deter others” from engaging the electoral offence, she suggested.