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The Electoral Commission (EC) is on track to conduct a free, fair and credible election in 2016, an independent presidential candidate in the 2012 election, Mr Jacob Osei Yeboah, has observed.

He has, therefore, enjoined all stakeholders, especially political parties, to assist the EC to perform its constitutionally mandated duties.  

Sharing his views on the electoral process, Mr Yeboah stated that it was not wrong to commence with the limited voter registration exercise before validation of the register.
Bamuyarada

However, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the Let My Vote Count Alliance, a political pressure group, have demanded validation before the limited voter registration exercise.

Last Wednesday, on the principal streets of Kumasi, the two groups organised a massive demonstration dubbed ‘’Bamu yadda’’ (We will not agree)   to reinforce the need for  an immediate validation.

Premature

But in the view of Mr Yeboah,  the demonstration was  premature.He,however, described the demonstration  as a security pointer for the EC to see what would be in store if they failed to have the confidence of people in the electoral process.

All the same, Mr Yeboah insisted there was absolutely nothing wrong with the EC going ahead with the limited voter registration exercise as it rolled out its electoral calendar of activities, including validation.

According to Mr Yeboah, since every voter registration had some challenges, including the registration of  minors, foreigners and people who register more than once, it would not be prudent use of resources to validate since the afore-memtioned challenges would call for another validation before  a clean and credible voters register could be put together. 

“When doing some limited voter registration, it is possible you may introduce errors into the register; it therefore makes sense to do the limited registration before the validation. Challenges of minors and foreigners registering, misspelling  and possibility of double registration can be eliminated during validation,’’ Mr Yeboah argued.

Cool heads

In line with this, Mr Yeboah asked for cool heads and greater sacrifices as the country inched towards the 2016 elections.

‘’The EC will perform, we are  very confident  of what  Madam Charlotte Osei and her team have set out to do with constitutional requirements that the political parties must fulfil,’’ Mr Yeboah asserted.

He said we should not be a nation of pessimists  always  casting snarl at the EC, saying ‘’ the EC is on track both in deployment and timing of execution of its mandate.’’

Advice

Mr Yeboah ,therefore, asked the two major political parties, the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the main opposition party, the New Patriotic Party (NPP), not to set themselves  to rig  the elections in their strongholds when the limited  voter registration exercise begins on April 28, 2016