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Youth Groups from the Kusaug Traditional Council in the Upper East Region have called on the Electoral Commission (EC) to rescind its decision to compile a new voters’ register as it posed a threat to national security.

The youth groups from six administrative districts in the Region including Bawku Municipal, Bawku West, Binduri, Garu, Tempane and Pusiga Districts, at a press conference said time was too short to enable the EC compile a credible register that would ensure all eligible voters were registered.

A statement signed by all the youth groups including the Kusasi, Bissa, Moshie, Bimoba and BONABOTO and read by Mr Francis Bukari, the Convener, expressed worry that with limited time and the difficult requirement for the registration of the new voters’ register, the exercise had the tendency to destabilize the peace in the area.

Giving an example of the 2012 mass registration exercise, the youth said even though the EC spent 10 days in each polling station, it had to extend the days and yet many eligible voters could not register, “it will be worse as the EC is planning to spend only six days at each polling station”.

The Youth Groups noted with concern that with the Ghana Card and Passport as the only requirement instead of the birth certificate, many eligible voters in the area would be disenfranchised since they did not have those two documents.

“The total voter population in the Upper East Region is over 720,000 and it is projected to increase to over 900,000 this year but the National Identification Authority was able to register just 220,000, out of this number, only 13,000 were issued with the ID cards. This means that only 1.4 per cent of the people in Upper East are qualified to register while citizens who possess the passport in the Region are not up to 0.01 per cent,” the Youth added.

The Youth further expressed concern about the spread of the coronavirus disease and said it would pose a serious threat to public health and safety if the EC went ahead with the new voter registration processes.

The Youth said the current voters’ register was good enough to hold the general elections in December as it was used to hold credible elections in 2016, the referendum in 2018 as well as the District Assembly and Unit Committee elections in December, 2019 without any hitch.

The young people therefore called on the EC to instead exhibit the current voter register for verification purposes and conduct a limited registration exercise to enable Ghanaians who had reached the age of voting to add their names to the electoral roll.

They further called on the EC to restore the relevance of the Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC) to avoid mistrust and suspicion from all electoral stakeholders especially political parties.

“We therefore, call on all well-meaning Ghanaians including the National Peace Council, religious bodies, the National House of Chiefs, Civil Society Organization and all Labour Unions to add their voices to avert the calamitous path the EC is leading us to,” they stressed.