The Electoral Commission (EC) of Ghana has indicated that it is well prepared to conduct the presidential and parliamentary elections on November 7 this year.
Public Relations Officer for the EC Eric Kofi Dzakpasu indicated that on Tuesday July 11 that: “I don’t really know why they think we are not ready for the elections on November 7. As far as we are concerned, we are very much prepared. We are working towards the November 7elections.”
His comments were in reaction to a statement made by the campaign manager of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), Mr Peter Mac Manu, that the EC has failed to find solutions to certain important concerns, which raises doubts about its commitment and readiness for this year’s elections, and especially on the proposed November 7.
He said this at a public forum organised by the Constitutional, Legal, and Parliamentary Affairs Committee of parliament on the Constitutional Amendment Bill in Accra.
The Centre for Democratic Development (CDD) Ghana and the Coalition of Domestic Election Observers (CODEO), who were present at the programme, also raised doubts over the November 7 date due to the closeness of the date to the next elections. They feel the necessary processes needed to amend the existing laws in order to make November 7 legal will not make it possible to use that date for this year’s elections.
The Supreme Court of Ghana on Tuesday July 5 ordered the Electoral Commission (EC) to implement the orders it gave on May 5 this year regarding voters who got registered by using the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) cards as an identification document.
The apex court on May 5, following a suit filed by Abu Ramadan, former National Youth Organiser of the People’s National Convention (PNC), and one Evans Nimako, against the EC, directed the election management body to delete from the register of voters the names of the dead, minors, as well as all voters who registered using their NHIS cards as national ID. The same court had ruled almost two years ago that the NHIS cards were invalid for voter registration.
But the PRO of the election-conducting body held a strong opinion that all the challenges regarding the elections would be resolved before the polls.
"It is not too much of a challenge. We are having our exhibition next week and at the same time we will be doing the deletion," he told Joy News.
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