Dr. Bossman Eric Asare
The Electoral Commission (EC) has released the provisional voters’ register to the various political parties.
Deputy Chair of the EC in charge of Corporate Services, Dr. Bossman Eric Asare, who disclosed this at its press briefing dubbed, “Let the Citizen Know” yesterday in Accra, said the Commission per its mandate in regulation CI 96 is required to make the register available on an external drive to the political parties.
The opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) Director of Elections, Dr. Omane Boamah, in a Facebook post last week, expressed concern over the EC’s delay in releasing the provisional voters’ register (PVR) to political parties.
He described the EC as incompetent and the delay a deliberate attempt to provide to the political parties a substandard provisional voters’ register to prevent them from adequately scrutinising the register before the exhibition begins.
But according to the Deputy Chair, until the end of the limited registration on May 29, 2024 and the mop-up registration that ended on August 3, 2024, they were not obliged to release the provisional voters’ register to the political parties as stipulated in the constitution.
He said, “We are to give the Provisional Register to the political parties not later than three months from the end of the registration period.
“We wish to state that the External Drives containing the Provisional Voters’ Register are ready for pick up. We can state on record that the NDC has collected its External Drive which contains the Provisional Voters’ Register.”
He also stated that as a result of the expansion of the voters register, Regulation 23 (1) of the Public Elections Registration of Voters’ Regulations, 2016, the EC is mandated by the constitution to display the provisional voters’ register for public inspection at all polling stations.
He said the provisional voters’ register would therefore be displayed at all polling stations throughout the country, to enable all registered voters check and ensure their names are in the register.
He said some of the lists that will be displayed at the exhibition centres include the Exception or the Exclusion Lists and the Multiple Double Lists.
The Exception List, he explained, contains the names and photographs of applicants whose registration as voters were challenged during the registration exercise and were subsequently disqualified by their respective District Registration Review Committees (DRRCs), details of deceased voters as well as details of persons who registered more than once.
By Ebenezer K. Amponsah