NDC RINGS ALARM BELL...Over EC, NIA registrations
The National Democratic Congress (NDC) has kicked against a decision by both the Electoral Commission (EC) and National Identification Authority (NIA) to conduct their respective registration exercises at the same time. The National Organiser of the party, Samuel Ofosu Ampofo, who raised the concern in Accra yesterday, said the two registrations would confuse the electorate if it were not reviewed.
NDC also raised concern about the limited voter registration exercise by the EC, which starts today. The party argued that opening the registration in only 2500 working stations would disfranchise voters. Ofosu Ampofo also pointed out that his party would not countenance any shortage of registration materials at the strongholds of the party, as it happened previously. He noted that in a similar exercise carried by the EC some years ago, only few registration forms were sent to the Northern regions.
Ampofo regretted that it was the same EC that assured the nation earlier that it has all the logistics to conduct the elections and could therefore not comprehend why it has decided to conduct limited registration, due to financial constraints.
The NDC parliamentary candidate for Ellembele, in the Western region, Emmanuel Armah Kofi Buah had also appealed to government and the management of the National Identification Authority (NIA) to halt their ongoing registration exercise and allow voters to concentrate on that of the Electoral Commission.
Kofi Buah, who was speaking in an interview with The Chronicle, said conducting both EC and NIA registration exercise at the same time would confuse the electorate and that there was the need to suspend the NIA registration and give priority to that of the EC.
According to him, government would be wasting resources since it would not be easy for the people to go and register for the two exercises. Voters might also be thinking that since they have already registered with the NIS, there would be no need to register with the EC.
This, according to the NDC guru, could pose a great challenge to the government and the country as a whole. Mr. Kofi Buah, who is also the NDC parliamentary candidate for Ellembelle, stressed that the registration by the two exercises must be made clear to all Ghanaians before anything untoward happened.
He blamed government for toiling with the democratic development of the country, with the two registration exercises. “Let us spend the tax payers money well by embarking on projects one after the other, instead of trying to kill two birds with one stone, this is uncalled for. We should not toil with our democratic development,” Mr. Kofi Buah cautioned the government.
Turning his attention to the Electoral Commission, the aspiring MP noted that it was the responsibility of the EC to make sure that Ghanaians who have attained the ages of 18 and above were registered. Those who did not also get the opportunity to register in the previous exercise, he maintained could do so through the current exercise without any problem.
However, should the EC remain mute and allow the two exercises to go together at the same time, it would certainly mar the beauty of the registration exercise and deny the larger population of the country their franchise in the December polls. “The best cause of action for now is to allow only one exercise” he insisted.
The chairman of the Electoral Commission, Dr. Kojo Afari Gyan, reacting to the concern about both EC and NIA registrations, at Joy Fm yesterday, said he did not have authority over the NIA and therefore could not direct them as to what they should do. Afari Gyan also contended that all the issues surrounding the limited registration exercise were discussed with all the political parties.
According to him, since the Commission was going to register less than a million voters, there was no need to open more registration centres. He dismissed claims by NDC that limited registration forms were sent to its strongholds during the previous registration. We have not deliberately under supplied any region with registration materials in the past, he said.