NDC Govt Warns NPP To Stay Off Electoral Commission

The presidency has warned the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) against coercing the Electoral Commission to implement an electronic verification system for the 2012 general elections. Some senior members of the NPP including Dr. Nyaho Nyaho-Tamakloe have earlier threatened that the party could boycott the polls if the verification is not done, although the party has not stated an official position on the matter. The leadership of the NDC has warned that the electronic verification mechanism has its own disadvantages and if not implemented properly could plunge the country into chaos. The Communications Director at the Presidency of Ghana, Koku Anyidoho, has said calls by the NPP for a computerised system of voters� verification, is unwarranted. �What is verification? That is when you have polling agents sitting at the desk and you have presiding officer there who looks at your voter�s ID to see if your name is in the register. But they [NPP] say they want a machine through which a voter will be verified,� Anyidoho said. The EC Chairman, Dr. Kwadwo Afari-Gyan has also stated publicly that such a system is not a priority now, instead producing a credible voters� register for the elections is more pressing. Anyidoho reiterated that the EC must be allowed to operate within its own means and not be forced to implement policies that could have dire consequences on the 2012 polls. He stated: �Verification is not something in the forest or in the skies, we are now going to look; the NPP is trying to create the impression that the verification is a new hybrid animal somewhere and that if we don�t bring it down and tame it, then election cannot come on. � �The priority of the EC is to clean the register and get the ghost names out. �