Jean Mensa
The Mass Action Committee has described as appropriate and timely the decision of the Electoral Commission (EC) to compile a new voters’ register ahead of the 2020 general election.
According to the committee, the need for a new voters’ register is no longer an option, but an urgent necessity.
The committee registered its support for the EC at a press conference held in Accra on Wednesday.
Addressing the media, Atik Mohammed, Executive Secretary of the Mass Action Committee, explained that it had become imperative to compile a new voters’ register for the 2020 election.
He indicated that the current system used by the EC was fraught with many challenges.
“We begin with the challenges associated with the Biometric Verification Registration (BVR) Kits. Ladies and gentlemen, the BVRs were procured in 2011 and have been in use since then,” he said.
According to him, the last time the EC purchased these kits was in 2013 (they bought 500 pieces).
He said the audit of 2015 could not clean the voter register of illegal names, hence the need for a new register.
“The presence of these names on the electoral roll calls into question the reliability of the register. And our best shot at eliminating these people from the register is by doing a new register,” he said.
He added that compiling a new register would afford the country an opportunity to reduce the number of ghosts on its register to the barest minimum at least for the 2020 general election.
Mr. Mohammed, therefore, wondered why the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) and its allies were kicking against the move to compile a new register.
He dispelled the claim that the final register would be ready by November 8, 2020, describing the claim as misleading.
He, therefore, urged all Ghanaians to register in April when the EC begins the compilation exercise.
“From the foregoing, it is clear that for us to have a reliable and sustainable electoral register; there is the urgent need for a new electoral roll. We must all endeavour to go out in our numbers and register so that we can exercise our franchise when the time comes,” he stressed.
The NDC and other small parties have been demonstrating against the compilation process.
They have so far organized three demonstrations in Tamale, Accra and Kumasi, with the last of three held on Tuesday, February 4, 2020 in Accra.
About Mass Action Committee
Mr. Mohammed said Mass Action Committee is a civil society organization made up of people from different walks of Ghana’s national life, including academia, entrepreneurs, political and social activists, traders, farmers, among others.
He said it had been in existence since 2013.
BY Melvin Tarlue