New Register: ‘Wɔkpɛnɛɛ’ Demo Hit Accra Today

The Inter-Party Resistance Against New Voters' Register have embarked on its third demonstration today [Tueday] to protest the compilation of the new voters' register.

The group has already held a protest in Tamale dubbed “Tikusayi demo” and another one in Kumasi known as the “Yennpini demo.”

The group resumed its suspended protest last week after the EC announced a date for the compilation of a new register, despite a planned meeting with the EC's Eminent Advisory Committee.

The group also accused the Commission of not being open enough with modalities for the new voter register despite calls for dialogue by its Eminent Advisory Committee.

Speaking to Citi News, the founder of the All People's Congress, Hassan Ayariga, said he expects the Accra protest to be massively patronised.

“Don't be shocked when you see people you don't expect to be there. So we are expecting a huge number of people to be out there — members of political parties, people from civil society and others from Non-Governmental Organisations,” he said.

Why the protests

The EC plans to abandon its current biometric verification system and procure a new one which has facial recognition technology.

The commission wants to do away with all forms of manual verification of voters.

As part of this, it also plans to compile a new voters' register which has been assigned a budget of GHS 390 million.

The EC has announced April 18, 2020, as the date to begin compiling the new register.

A provisional version of the register is expected to be ready in June 2020.

Stalemate after dialogue

Last week, an Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC) meeting on the dispute over the compilation of a new voters' register ended in a stalemate.

The parties opposed to the new compilation said they remained unconvinced by the EC’s argument for a new register because there was no proof that the current register is not credible.

But the EC still plans to go ahead with a compilation of the register and has assured political parties that an electronic version of the electoral roll will be delivered to them in the middle of October 2020.

Per the provisional time of the EC, printing and distribution of the final register is expected to take place between October 10 and November 8, 2020.

--citinewsroom