The Coalition of Domestic Election Observers (CODEO) has asked the Electoral Commission (EC) to spell out the measures it is putting in place to clean the voters register to end ongoing controversy on the matter.
CODEO’s call comes in the wake of a renewed debate between the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) over the register.
A V.C.R.A.C Committee put together by the EC to deal with the concerns over the register recommended among other things, an extension of the exhibition exercise as one of the ways to clean it up.
From pages 19 to 21 of the report, the Committee recommended voter validation as a means of ensuring a clean voters’ register ahead of the November 2016 polls.
Pressure group Let My Vote Count Alliance (LMVCA) and the NPP hit the streets of Kumasi last week to mount pressure on the EC to announce to Ghanaians a roadmap for the implementation of recommendations by the Committee on the voters’ register.
But a member of the Committee who is also the Chairman of National Peace Council and Most Rev. Prof. Emmanuel Asante has discredited claims that the panel recommended a validation process.
He said the understanding of the Committee members as at the time of drafting the report was for the EC to put in place mechanisms for those names which are not supposed to be in the register to be deleted but not to use validation to achieve that.
Meanwhile, the Deputy Director of Center for Democratic Development (CDD), Dr. Franklyn Oduro, has charged the EC to be transparent on the issue.
“I think it is important that the measures that it [EC] will take to clean the register are clearly communicated to everyone. What is happening now with he said, he said is a clear indication that there is a missing gap in the public discourse,” Dr Oduro said.
He said the EC must state clearly whether it will consider the recommendations of the panel or is adding on to it to curtail the demands.