Officials of the Electoral Commission (EC) will be in a crucial meeting with members of the Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Committee of Parliament today following the fall-outs from the public forum organized by the committee on Monday.
The meeting, even though crucial, has also caught the attention of the chairman of the Subsidiary Legislation Committee which is advising the Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Committee to probe deeper into the preparedness of the EC to conduct successful elections this year as well as its actions and inactions which could affect the success of the polls.
Chairman the Subsidiary and Legislation Committee, OB Amoah, who is also the representative of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) on the Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC) at the EC, said the commission had so far not provided copies of the provisional voter register to the political parties as demanded by law, even though the exhibition of the register is scheduled to begin on Monday, July 18.
According to Mr OB Amoah, who is the MP for Akwapim South, the EC had not been able to tell the political parties when the certified voter register – which is an important ingredient in the conduct of the elections – would be ready.
“So far the issue of the names of NHIS card holders being deleted from the voter register has not been dealt with and we also do not know when the certified register would be ready and given to the political parties well ahead of time for scrutiny before the day of elections,” he observed, stressing that by law the EC would have to give the certified electoral roll to the parties three months before the general election.
The Akwapim South MP also indicated that it is only when the certified register is ready that the EC can determine the deadlines for the transfer of votes, proxy voting and special voting, adding that the CI 91 has stated clearly that all these transfer of votes should be done 42 days before the elections.
Speaking to DAILY GUIDE, Mr Amoah said that after the bill on the Constitutional Amendment to change the election date from December 7 to November 7 has been approved by parliament, the EC would also have to come back to parliament with a new CI to change the date for the presidential and the parliamentary elections, which will take 21 sitting days to mature, before it could be passed into law.
“As far as I am concerned, I know parliament will be rising by the end of this month and we do not know when this new CI will also come to parliament for parliamentarians to work on it,” he expressed.
He said the meeting between the EC and the committee members today must also be used to find out whether the EC had started the process of procurement of election materials since the time is too short for such a process.
By Thomas Fosu Jnr