The opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) on Wednesday registered its anger over what it described as numerous administrative anomalies on the part of the Electoral Commission (EC) in the on-going Voter’s Exhibition and Registration exercise.
According to the party, the failure of the EC to put in place measures to ensure that every potential voter, whose name was deleted from the register, because they used the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) card to register the last time, was offered the opportunity to re-register is indeed nerve racking.
The NPP, through its Ashanti Regional Chairman , Bernard Antwi Boasiako, aka Chairman Wontumi, said it has uncovered several discrepancies and anomalies in the on-going exercise, which it stated could prevent thousands of voters from exercising their franchise in the December 7 polls.
A report published in the yesterday edition of this paper said the party listed the deletion of names of people who did not use the NHIS card to register, deletion of names of people who are still alive but marked dead, frustrations people are going through in trying to replace their lost cards, the slow pace of the re-registration of disqualified NHIS card holders, and the abnormal incidents of multiple registration as some of the worrying issues.
The NPP continued that it has received several reports that names of some potential registrants in its strongholds in the Ashanti Region are being deleted from the list, for allegedly dabbling in multiple registrations.
It posited that the anomaly, which has arisen as a result of the manual setting of the biometric device, at a rather the biometric device, at a rather odd time, has resulted in the automatic deletion of certain names.
The report quoted Chairman Wontumi as issuing a stern warning at a press conference held in the Asokwa Constituency to register the paper’s displeasure that the action of the EC was a recipe for chaos and disaffection.
“The opposition party is, therefore, calling on EC to extend the deadline for the re-registration of deleted names, as well as rectify the abnormal situation of registrants whose names are being taken out of the list for alleged multiple registration,” the story explained.
Since credible election is what every Ghanaians is clamouring for, The Chronicle calls on the EC to, as a matter of urgency, heed to the appeal of the NPP by examining and finding solutions to all the concerns that have been raised to ensure peaceful conduct of the elections.
The accusations and counter accusations that ensued between the EC and the opposition political parties led by the NPP over the voters register before Abu Ramadan dragged the electoral body to the Supreme Court over the issue is still fresh in the minds of Ghanaians and must not be repeated.
It is against this backdrop that The Chronicle is appealing to the EC to, in the name of peace hold meetings with the political parties to ensure that they agree on all the roadmap for the election and follow accordingly.
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