Ghana Electoral Register Not Credible—Akufo-Addo

The 2012 Presidential Candidate for NPP, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, who is also an aspiring flagbearer for 2016, has strongly questioned the credibility of Ghana's electoral register used in 2012 general elections.

Speaking to Ghanaians at Dominion Centre, London last Sunday, Nana Akufo Addo said, Ghana voters register is completely out of tune with the registers of all our equivalent neighbours. "Even South Africa, which has the highest involvement of people in politics of the entire continent cannot register such a huge percentage of people for their voters register like we have in Ghana".

He cited number of democratic countries in Africa such as Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, Cote d'Ivoire and others that all these countries have electoral registers which are well below 50 percent but we in Ghana, have electoral register of 56 percent; extremely higher than any other democratic country in Africa. Sounding understandably, Ghana has probably the world's worst voters' register.

Expressing concerns about the incredulous electoral register in Ghana, Nana Addo asked for immediate auditing of the voters register before any other new registrations are done, to ensure credibility in the system.

He articulated this as a critical task before the New Patriotic Party, which requires the party's leadership to do something about it.

Nana Addo charged the party's leadership to outline a programme to compel the changes deem as necessary to ensure clean and credible elections in the year 2016.

Nana Akufo Addo Stated; "if nothing at-all, the Supreme Court case last year showed abundance evidence of double registrations, and all the things that went on. We all saw it with our eyes before the Supreme Court and for that matter, there is an urgent need for all of us to work together to bring about the changes that will give Ghana a credible electoral system".