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Shoulder To Shoulder With Minority Leader

By Daily Guide
Editorial Shoulder To Shoulder With Minority Leader
SEP 2, 2015 LISTEN

Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu
Minority Leader Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, spoke the minds of most Ghanaians when he laid out the take of his colleagues on the other side in parliament regarding the largely oppugned voter register.

We could not agree more with him on the subject. Coming on the heels of yesterday's district level polls, we deemed it appropriate because of the possibility of apologists of the flawed register erroneously thinking that the exercise somewhat gives a semblance of legitimacy and credibility to the document. Far from that!

That register of voters of sorts is so compromised that it can never pass the test of a credible document worthy of the respect of Ghanaians. Shredded, lambasted and frowned upon, this is not the kind of document to be associated with a credible election. Standing on the basis of this document to claim victory in an election will be a fallacy of the highest order.

A president derives legitimacy only if he wins an election that is acceptable by the citizens of the country. A situation where the foundation of the election – which is the voter register – is queried in the manner that is being seen and appreciated both locally and internationally, the best to do is replace it, no matter how much this would cost the nation monetarily. The value of peace is incalculable and so using the cost implication of a replacement to justify a non-compliance is not only nonsensical, but self-serving by those who stand to gain in the short-term from the flawed document.

That yesterday's electoral exercise took place after all was out of the exigencies of the moment. We could not have stood against Ghanaians going to the polls to cast their votes for assembly men and women using the flawed document at this time. Given the quantum of inconveniences that would have visited both aspirants and Ghanaians in general, the best option was the decision to let sleeping dogs lie for yesterday's process only and not subsequent polls, especially the presidential and parliamentary elections. As for the toll of such indefinite postponement of the polls on the state kitty, it could have only been imagined a previous such procrastination having cost the state so much in terms of funds.

This year's polls are the most costly in the annals of the electoral exercise since it was adopted.

So much have been said about why we should replace the current register of voters that we dread revisiting it here – the premises already public knowledge.

Elections are critical attributes of democracies; anything therefore with the potential of oppugning the credibility of this process such as the use of a flawed voter register must be isolated for the necessary treatment. Under our current circumstances, we risk wasting public funds when we ignore the issues raised about the integrity of the voter register. Of what benefits will an election be when at the end of the day the outcome is disputed?

The emerging president will definitely be denied the deference that he requires to run a successful government.

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