Politics of Saturday, 26 October 2019

Source: ghananewsagency.org

Armah Kofi Buah threatens injunction on District Level elections

Emmanuel Armah Kofi Buah, Ellembelle MP Emmanuel Armah Kofi Buah, Ellembelle MP

Mr Emmanuel Armah Kofi Buah, Member of Parliament (MP) for Ellembelle, has threatened to use legal processes to place an injunction on the upcoming District Assembly and Unit Committee elections set for December 17, 2019.

He alleged that the Electoral Commission (EC) was acting in a manner that would disenfranchise about 5,000 people in his constituency.

“This is how worrisome we should all be, how can people have voter’s identification card and the EC cannot tell us why their names are not on the exhibition list?” he asked.

Mr Buah said this in an interaction with the media in Parliament on Friday.

During proceedings, Mr Buah sought direction from the Speaker, Professor Mike Oquaye, as to how the House could call Mrs Jean Mensah, the Chairperson of the EC, to brief it on the matter.

Mr Buah also explained that in June this year, when the EC started the limited registration exercise for voters who turned 18 years, about 6,300 electorates were registered in the Ellembele Constituency.

He said in September when the EC opened the exhibition, almost all the newly registered voters who visited the exhibition centres could not find their names in the register.

Later when they started checking the complaints with their own records they found out that about 5,000 out of the 6,300 people who registered in June could not find their names on the list.

He said later when they enquired from the EC officials in the area, their response was that those whose names were not on the register must go to their district office, pick a form and register anew.
Mr Buah said anytime the people went to the EC Office they were informed the system was down, resulting in only 30 of them being able to register.