Audio By Carbonatix
The New Patriotic Party has described as "laughable," the reasons given by the Electoral Commission for its decision to maintain the current voter's register this year's polls.
Director of Communications of the Party, Nana Akomea told Joy News the EC has been biased in the way it handled the controversial issues of the voter's register.
The Electoral Commission on 31, December 2015, threw out a petition by the NPP arguing the current register is flawed and demanding a new voter's register.
The Commission, among other things, said the arguments for the new voter's register were unconvincing.
The EC's decision was based on a recommendation by a five-member panel tasked to collate views for or against calls for a new voters' register.
The New Patriotic Party which has been leading the crusade for a new register claimed it has evidence that over 76,000 non-Ghanaians from neighbouring countries are on the register.
The governing National Democratic Congress, while admitting the current voters' register may be bloated, said the way forward was an audit of the register and not a compilation of a new one.
The EC after considering the report of the five-member panel, said the NPP did not give any evidence to show that the 76,000 people were not entitled to register.
According to the Commission, attempts to access the voter's register from Togo and other neighbouring countries to compare with that of Ghana's register proved futile.
On that basis, the Commission said it would be arbitrary to remove the controversial names from the register.
Director of Communications of the New Patriotic Party Nana Akomea said the arguments of the EC are tenuous.
He said looking at the sequence of events, the EC did not treat the case of the NPP with any seriousness.
He explained since August 2015 when the NPP first petitioned the EC, there was no attempt by the Commission to investigate the matter. Rather it asked other stakeholders to bring their opinions on the matter.
"You can only invite stakeholders if you have investigated the matter," he said, adding "the EC has been biased right from day one."
"The entire conduct of the EC has been poor and it will fuel perception she was put there" to promote the agenda of government, he said.
"Electoral matters should be considered more seriously. The one thing that Ghana has which others don't have is peace. Anything we can do to maintain the peace we should do," he stated.
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