President Akufo-Addo
President Akufo-Addo has backed the decision by the Electoral Commission to compile a new register ahead of the 2020 elections.
Speaking at a meeting with the Ghanaian community in Oslo in Norway, the President said the decision by the EC makes a lot of sense adding that the electoral management body should be allowed to do its work.
“We are getting ourselves ready for December 7. The Electoral Commission is going to compile a new register. It appears there is now an eight-year cycle for the electoral commission to compile a register.
“They did so in 2012 and 2004. So with these last three including this one are all in the eight-year cycle. I think it makes a lot of sense. The national census itself is done on a ten-year basis.”
“So it makes sense that we keep up the EC to admit new people, take out all those who have died, etc. Their intention is to begin in April….we want as many people, everybody in Ghana who can vote to register. It’s important that we all exercise our civic duty to go and vote in December and choose the government that we want,” President Akufo-Addo said.
The Electoral Commission despite stiff resistance by a section of the public and opposition parties has insisted that it will go ahead with a new voters’ register ahead of the December polls.
On Monday renowned policy Think Tank IMANI Ghana accused the Electoral Commission of deception and playing dangerous games with its decision to go ahead with a new Voters’ register ahead of the 2020 elections.
In a statement, IMANI stated that the Electoral Commission has blatantly and consistently lied about the true facts of the current biometric system and its ongoing effort to procure a new one.
According to IMANI, the EC’s claims that it will cost just $56 million to procure a new system whilst the cost of refreshing and maintaining the existing one would cost $74 million are dangerous untruths.