General News of Thursday, 24 September 2020

Source: GNA

We have no plans to remove names of NDC supporters - EC

Logo of Electoral Commission Logo of Electoral Commission

The Electoral Commission on Wednesday denied allegations that it is carrying out an agenda to remove the names of supporters of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) from the Voters Register.

A statement copied to the Ghana News Agency said the Commission had, from the beginning of the compilation of the Voters Register, lived up to its motto: Fairness, Transparency and Accountability.

It said, at every point, it had provided factual, accurate and evidence based information to stakeholders on voter statistics per region, district, gender, and age among other things.

The statement said to date every interested Ghanaian had information on the number of persons who registered in the just concluded Voter Registration Exercise based on the information provided.

“It is a paradox, therefore, to suggest that the same Commission now seeks to remove persons from the Voters Register. Had that been the agenda of the Commission it would not have given detailed information to stakeholders throughout the Registration process. We assure the public that these allegations are unfounded,” it said.

The statement said the Law recognised that a registration process was not full proof and had provided a mechanism called “Exhibition” to allow citizens to verify their details to ensure they were captured in the register or that details such as sex, age and name were accurate.

It said the Law provides for “inclusion” to allow persons who registered but whose names were not on the register to file to be included in the register.

“This process is not new and has always formed part of our processes. In a nutshell, the Exhibition Exercise provides an opportunity to stakeholders to unearth problems with the register for the purpose of fixing it. We are fixing the issues unearthed,” the statement said.

It assured the public of the Commission’s commitment to working to ensure that the margin of error with the Voters Register was negligible.

“We are confident that at the end of the process, we will bequeath the nation with a Register that reflects truth and integrity, a Register that is credible and comprises eligible Ghanaians only,” it said.