NDC, PNC Want EC To Disclose Names Removed From Register

> NDC, PNC Want EC To Disclose Names Removed From Register

Two political parties want the Electoral Commission (EC) to make public voters whose names have been removed from the voter Register.

The two parties, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the People's National Convention (PNC) said even though the exercise being carried out by the EC was in the right direction, the commission should make public how, where and the identification of voters whose names had been expunged from the register.

It would be recalled that the Chairman of the EC, Dr Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, recently announced that about 350,000 names had been cleaned from the voters register.

According to the General Secretary of the NDC, Mr Johnson Asiedu-Nketia, the NDC was not aware of the modalities being employed by the EC to clean the register.

“ The EC has to come again to explain to us how persons whose names have been removed from the register were identified and where and when it took place,” Mr Asiedu-Nketia said.

He said it was possible for genuine persons to be affected in the exercise which could disenfranchise them in the forthcoming general election and generate disaffection in some parts of the country.

The NDC General Secretary said there could also be the situation where people could present their voter identity cards at the polling stations on the election day to be told that their names could not be found in the register because they had been casualties of the exercise.

Mr Asiedu-Nketia said the NDC suspected that the register was still bloated and for that reason made a passionate appeal to the EC to continue with its efforts to produce a register which will be accepted for the conduct of the December 7 polls by the various political parties in the country.

He said since the acceptance of the results of the next election by the political parties would be based on a credible register, the EC was duty bound to provide a clean register for its conduct.

“The next presidential and parliamentary election is crucial for the country's future progress and prosperity and for that reason, the EC should strive to provide the nation with a register which will be credible for the execution of the next election and whose outcome will be readily accepted by the parties” he said.

The National Chairman of the PNC, Alhaji Ahmed Ramadan, said the party “does not know how the voters register was cleaned”.

“The PNC for that reason recommends to the EC to publish in full the names of voters whose names have been expunged from the register”, he said.

He said the PNC and for that matter Ghanaians needed to be informed about how the exercise was conducted and the criteria used for the removal of the names from the register.

The PNC chairman pointed out that time was on the side of the EC to serialise in the various print and broadcast media as well as make available to the political parties, the names of persons removed from the register.

Alhaji Ramadan said even though the EC should be commended for a good work done so far, he was inclined to believe that more could be done by the commission to produce a clean and better register which would not attract the expression of any serious concerns by the political parties.

Story By Kweku Tsen

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