The Unrealistic Decrees By The EC Must Cease

The NDC Professionals Forum-North America wish to remind the Electoral Commission that we would be on their neck till the right processes are put in place to spare this country the agony of unwarranted disorder in preparation for the 2020 general elections.

Once again, the supposed electoral management body has exhibited its vacuous appreciation of the electoral process with cruel intentions of derailing Ghana’s democratic credentials.

We expected that Madam Jean Mensa and her team would by now, orientated themselves on the way things are done at the EC, especially in consultation with IPAC; but strangely, they have chosen the boobish approach to institute an agenda under a guise of constitutional mandate.

The latest of the EC goofs that has come to the notice of the diaspora community is a so-called “review of IT infrastructure” which requires voter registrants in the limited registration exercise to throng district centers for this all-important democratic exercise.

While Proforum North America agree that being a citizen and a voter comes with enormous responsibilities, we hold firm, that, it should not be unnecessarily strenuous for citizens to register for their franchise to vote in democratic elections. Imagine trekking for over 40 miles for registration and for no fault of yours have to trek again due to possible technical challenges during the exercise.

Limited voter registration exercises since our 4^th Republican dispensation has been at all voting centers. It was in rare occasions that photographs for IDs had to be coordinated and taken at nearest centers to where the EC could not deploy cameras. The biometric and instant registration equipment later introduced during the tenure of Dr. Kodwo Afari Gyan made the registration easier, though with its own challenges.

The Proforum North America is therefore demanding a clear-cut plan for their so-called “IT Infrastructure” registration exercise since, its obvious from the ‘Jean Mensa decrees’, that the EC does not have a full grasp of the country’s geographic terrain and IT setup. The sovereign constitution mandates the EC to come up with modalities for registration but it calls for common sense, logic and wisdom to live up to expectation, for which the current EC is shamelessly failing Ghanaians. And it is even more laughable when the EC chair takes offence when experience and monumental brains laugh the absurdity of the EC off.

The Proforum North America upholds the reaction of our party General Secretary and insist the EC must stick to the decentralisation of the limited voter registration exercise up to the electoral area levels instead of the 260 district offices. The foundation of Ghana’s democracy is at the grassroots and the structures at polling stations must be allowed to supervise the electoral process which begins with the registration of voters.

We see the EC proposal as a deliberate attempt to manipulate the process and end up disenfranchising many qualified potential voters who have resolved and rightly so, to reactivate the transformational agenda of our able President in waiting H.E. John Dramani Mahama.

We demand an end to the barefaced decrees by the EC Chair and encourage fruitful discourse to strengthen our dear democracy. God bless our homeland Ghana.

Signed

Arnold Appiah - President