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Registration Of SHS Students: EC Refused To Dialogue With Political Parties

Headlines Registration Of SHS Students: EC Refused To Dialogue With Political Parties
JUL 12, 2020 LISTEN

The main opposition NDC's decision to initiate legal action against the registration of final year students of senior high schools is due to the fact that the EC showed disrespect when they refused to engage stakeholders and political parties on that score.

This was revealed by the Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu, who also expressed concerns over the EC refusal to gazette voter centres in senior high schools.

The two-day exercise is to offer final year students of voting age the opportunity to be on the new voters roll.

The Minority Leader said there should have been consultations with the political parties before the exercise began.

“The Electoral Commission published registration centres in a gazette, they should respect what was published. That is for the purpose of transparency and accountability in the registration exercise. But where students are domiciled in particular constituencies, it is for them to do a wider consultation with the political parties and make a determination that guarantees the students right to vote.”

Mr. Iddrisu's concerns come in the wake of a suit by the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) challenging the Electoral Commission's decision to organise voter registration exercise in Senior High Schools (SHS).

The EC commenced a two-day registration at premises of the various senior high schools beginning July 10, 2020.

The exercise is supposed to end today [Saturday, July 11, 2020].

The decision to commence registration in SHSs was communicated to political parties after an emergency Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC) meeting on Thursday, July 9, 2020.

This was after some members of the public raised concerns about the exclusion of SHS students from the ongoing voter registration exercise.

---CitinewsRoom

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