Peaceful 2012 election depends on the EC – Asamoah Gyamfi

A member of the NPP's communication team, Asamoah Gyamfi says President Mills' advise to Ghanaians not to derail the peace in the country during the 2012 general election might not hold if the Electoral Commission does not sit up.

“The President's promise might not necessarily hold because if the people do not trust the voting process, like the EC was besieged in the 2008 general elections, a similar thing could happen not even at the head office but across the country and as it stands now, the military force and other security agencies can not contain it” he warned.

Speaking on Adom TV's morning show, Badwam, on Multi TV, Mr. Gyamfi said the realization of the President's advice largely depends on how the Electoral Commission handles the registration process for next year's elections.

The Electoral Commission [EC] is expected to capture the biometric data of voters for a biometric register to be used for the 2012 elections, but the opposition NPP is raising concerns about the EC's approach to the process which Mr. Gyamfi describes as potentially explosive.

According to him, the EC has so far failed to prove that it is capable of organizing a credible biometric voter's registration exercise.

Mr. Gyamfi who is also a member of the NPP's Information Technology team cautioned the EC to opt for the most effective and efficient biometric registration system to ensure absolute transparency during next year's polls.

In what he describes as a wrong move by the EC, the NPP's IT Research team member expressed regret that the EC has gone ahead to hold discussions with the consultants who worked on the biometric registration process for Guinea, Nigeria and Congo – 3 countries which recently held controversial elections despite their use of the biometric registers – instead of seeking expert advice from institutions like the United Nations Development Program [UNDP].

Mr. Gyamfi noted that the sustenance of current peace in the country “is never [dependent on] President Mills, it is [rather] the harmony between the EC and the political parties.”

Story by Agbavor Koku Prince/ Multi TV