PPP Pushes For Voters’ Register Validation

Nii Allotey Brew Hammond

THE PROGRESSIVE People's Party (PPP) has called on the Electoral Commission (EC) to expedite the validation of the current over-bloated voters' register to ensure a credible election this year.

The PPP made the call at a press conference held at its headquarters on Wednesday in Accra to address matters relating to electoral reforms and the effective management of the 2016 elections.

According to the party's National Chairman, Nii Allotey Brew Hammond, it has become necessary that the EC, chaired by Charlotte Osei, “take immediate steps to clean the register.”

This, the party said, was because the current register was fraught with names of some 600,000 dead Ghanaians, rendering it unfit for use in the November 7 polls.

Thus, the PPP chairman indicated that “The EC should devise a more effective means to remove the names of dead persons from the register.”

He cautioned that “If the system instituted by the EC for relatives of dead people to come forward and assist the EC is not effective, the option is not for the EC to leave these names on the register for some political parties to take advantage of this huge number and inflate their votes.”

.
Ultimatum
The EC has been given a one-week ultimatum by pro-NPP pressure group, Let My Vote Count Alliance (LMVCA) to explain to Ghanaians whether or not it will conduct the validation exercise as recommended by the Justice Crabbe Committee that was empanelled by the EC to look into the 'over-bloated' voters' register.

Proposals
The PPP urged the EC to as a matter of necessity implement its proposals to the Commission in 2012 for some electoral reforms.

Mr Brew Hammond recalled that the PPP in 2012 recommended to the EC to “enforce the political parties act and disqualify parties that did not meet the minimum criteria.”

He said the PPP at the time urged that the “EC begin the process immediately to ensure the verification, documentation and auditing of campaign funding” but stated that the recommendations had since not been implemented by the Commission.

BY Melvin Tarlue