The General Secretary of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP), John Boadu, expects the date for the compilation of a new voters’ register to be changed.
Mr. Boadu was speaking to the media after an Inter-Party Advisory Committee Meeting on Wednesday.
His comments also come after the EC said it will announce a new date for the compilation of the new register.
“It will all depend on how we are able to contain particularly with the directive given by the President. As a result, their 18th April date is still tentative. It is likely to change depending on how it goes.”
Currently, he said the commission is “feverishly” putting in place its plans
“The software for the new register is almost ready. They [the EC] are waiting for the hardware,” he added.
Why the need for the registration?
The EC has said it wants to ensure that the register that is used on the election day is more credible and efficient than the existing one hence the need for a new Biometric Voter Management System (BVMS).
The Commission is asking replace its biometric machines to better address verification challenges that could occur during elections.
A key new feature the EC cited is the introduction of a facial recognition option in addition to fingerprint verification.
The EC first made the announcement on March 27, 2019, and has been granted GHS390 million to carry out a registration exercise over a period of 50 days.
It also plans to make the Ghana Card and passport the only acceptable identification for the upcoming voter registration, but the announcement has been received with mixed reaction.
Opposition to new register
The move for the new register has been met with opposition from key political stakeholders, including the main opposition party, the National Democratic Congress (NDC).
The opposition party called on Ghanaians to reject the EC’s plans because it felt the commission was yet to present a compelling argument for the compilation of a new register.
Over the course of deliberations, it has even walked out of a meeting with the EC.
The Inter-Party Resistance Against New Voter Register, a group made up of the NDC, the Progressive People’s Party (PPP), Convention People’s Party (CPP), People’s National Convention (PNC), Eagle Party, All People’s Party (APC) and the Great Consolidated Popular Party (GCPP) have on three occasions demonstrated to express their disappointment against the EC’s decision.
Most recently, the NDC has sued the EC over the matter arguing that the commission lacks the power to go ahead with its plans because it can only “compile a register of voters only once, and thereafter revise it periodically, as may be determined by law.”
Source: citinewsroom.com
