-New Register Ultimatum

After embarking on series of demonstrations (sometimes violent) with threats to disrupt the November 7 polls should the Electoral Commission not yield to their demand for new voter register, the opposition New Patriotic Party, and its flag bearer, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo have since abandoned that stand and have finally, acquiesce to the election management body’s position of no new register for the approaching elections.

Strangely, the pro-NPP pressure group, Let My Vote Count Alliance which has been at the forefront of the biggest opposition party and its 2016 flag bearer’s call for new register and others such as, AFAG and Movement For Change have now shifted from the “No New Register No Vote” crusade to “No Validation No Limited Registration”.

These groups with support from the NPP and other opposition inclined parties have in recent times been engaged in media battle to compel the EC to carry out a supposed validation of the register, allegedly recommended by the Justice VCRAC Crabbe-led eminent group tasked to look into whether there was the need to compile a new register for November election.
Party functionaries, MPs and supporters of the NPP last week massed up in the Ashanti regional capital, Kumasi, under the umbrella of LMVCA in a demonstration dubbed “Baamu Yadda”, to wit “we will not agree” to force the EC to kowtow to their new demand of “Validation” of the voter register.

Convener for the group, David Asante told the media in Kumasi that, the reluctance of the EC to validate voters on the register, contradicts the recommendations of its (EC’s) own panel of experts and it is a recipe for disaster.

“The principal objective of this demonstration is to drum home the need for the Electoral Commission to take the people of Ghana serious. The EC‘s committee recommended validation and the EC came out publicly to uphold the report of the committee. Most of the political parties who ideally were calling for a new voters’ register accepted the recommendation of the committee only for the EC to do another U-turn to say the commission will not do any validation.

“We find it very unhealthy for our democracy especially coming from the body that is mandated to manage our Electoral affairs in this country…We will not agree, EC must clean the voters register through the validation process to present a credible voters register for Ghanaians to have a peaceful election, ” Asante forcefully stated.

Mr. Asante also indicated that they will replicate the exercise across the country, until the EC heeds to their demands.

But, a founding member of the NPP and Convener of Ghana Institute of Public Policy Options (GIPPO), Dr. Charles Wereko Brobbey has denied of any specific validation exercise recommended by the Crabbe Committee of Experts.

He has therefore cautioned the largest opposition party against unjustifiably challenging the validity of the voter’s register because their antics only goes to impede the preparedness of the EC ahead of the general elections scheduled for November this year.

Dr. Wereko Brobby accused the NPP of dishonesty, insisting that some of them have falsely claimed that the V.C.R.A.C Crabbe Panel recommended validation to be done using a particular method which they would find more satisfying.

His position was supported by a deputy Minister of Communications, Felix Kwakye Ofosu who wrote on his facebook wall “Fact: Nowhere in the report of the panel set up to look into claims by the NPP over the voter register was validation recommended. NPP has been lying throughout this unnecessary debate over the register.”

Hours after the NPP sponsored ‘Baamu Yadda’ demonstration, chairperson of the EC; Charlotte Osei revealed that the commission has started implementing some of the reforms recommended by the Supreme Court in the landmark election petition case to enhance the transparency of the country’s electoral process.

Speaking at a ceremony to announce a UK-funded programme to support Ghana’s democracy for the next five years dubbed ‘Deepening Democratic Governance’ Madam Charlotte Osei said “we are ensuring that the election this year is credible, transparent and peaceful.”

“In doing that, we’ve started the process of implementing several reforms. Some of those are as a result of the recommendations made by the Supreme Court during the election petition. Other reforms are those that have been agreed by a wide range of stakeholders including political parties and civil society organizations. And all these reforms are towards strengthening the electoral process and ensuring that the institutions are stronger and independent and that the rules are acceptable to all the key players across the political divide.”