Politics of Thursday, 4 July 2019

Source: Daniel Kaku

Voter's Registration: Kofi Buah supports Jomoro NDC with GHC2,000

Emmanuel Kofi Buah Emmanuel Kofi Buah

The opposition National Democratic Congress Member of Parliament for Ellembelle in the Western Region, Emmanuel Armah Kofi-Buah has presented GHC2,000 to the Jomoro Constituency Executives to aid them in the ongoing limited registration exercise

Speaking to some EC officials and the media after the donation, the Former Petroleum Minister, said the EC officials and all those working as true representatives of the political parties, considered as key stakeholders managing the electoral process of the country must learn to cooperate with each other throughout the period of the ongoing exercise.

He, therefore, said the EC must endeavour to expand the number of registration centres as earlier suggested by the NDC to address overcrowding.

According to him, the first major concern of the NDC was the fear that the exercise could witness overcrowding if not managed carefully with expanded registration centres.

Unfortunately, he said the concerns of the largest opposition party was ignored by the EC, therefore causing the overcrowding being witnessed at some of the centres.

Consequently, he appealed passionately to the key stakeholders to listen to each other throughout the period of the exercise in order to make it successful.

"We must all listen to each other. We have to cooperate with the EC, we are critical stakeholders" he appealed passionately.

Aside from the limited centers being used to cause overcrowding, the former Minister noted that the biometric registration machines being used for the exercise had earlier been rejected by the same EC claiming they were to be replaced with new ones.

According to him, all these issues identified above have been raised by the NDC to address the concerns of Ghanaian electorates who are mandated to register and be part of the electoral process has been guaranteed by the 1992 constitution.

He said EC officials at the District level must endeavour to apply simple but reasonable solutions to address unique problems currently facing their respective areas.

Armah Kofi-Buah cautioned against unnecessary disagreements among parties over these issues outlined "This is not life and death matter".

As managers of the country's electoral process, he said the EC officials must develop the culture of accepting divergent views "EC must have an opened listening ear".

He, therefore, seized the opportunity to charge all NDC members to involve themselves in this crucial exercise and appealed to those who at 18 years and above without voter's ID cards to register early as possible.

On his part, the Jomoro NDC Communications Officer, Patrick Ellonu expressed his profound appreciation to the Ellembelle MP for the kind gesture and pledged to use the money to achieve its intended purpose.

He disclosed that Emmanuel Armah Kofi-Buah has been supporting the development of the party in the area though he is not a Member of Parliament for Jomoro.