EC to comply with Court ruling on limited registration of voters

By
Iddi Yire, RNG

Accra, June 8, GNA – Whatever the outcome
of the Court's decision concerning the limited registration of outstanding voters, the
Electoral Commission (EC) will comply, Mr Samuel Tettey, Member of the EC
President in charge of operations said.

He said that because of an injunction from the court, the Commission
suspended indefinitely the limited exercise of voter registration, which was
should start from Friday, June 7 to Thursday, July 27 throughout his district
offices and 1,573 selected electoral zones across the country.

He declared that the 1,573 electoral zones selected,
who used biometric verification registration kits (BVR) for exercise,
constituted about 25% of the country's electoral constituencies.

He said that the suspension of the exercise was
following a pending court order to prevent the Commission from
holding the limited voter registration exercise.

He explained that the Commission had
sufficiently prepared to carry out the process of limited voter registration,
which were part of their preparations for the conduct of the referendum
on the election of chiefs of metropolitan municipalities and districts
(MMDCE) and district level elections (DLE) scheduled for December.

"The Commission has actually prepared very
well, all the logistics needed for the exercise was purchased. We have
has completed the training of all officials who must participate in the registration
exercise, "Tettey said over the weekend during his presentation to a group of
Conference on the next referendum on the election of MMDCEs.

The workshop was organized by Ghana
Conference of Catholic Bishops with funding from Konrad Adenauer Stiftung.

Mr. Tettey stated that the Commission had taken the
steps needed to prepare for the December meeting
referendum on the election of MMDCEs and DLEs.

He noted that the Commission was also
guided by the constitutional threshold of 40 per cent, which
vote in the referendum and 75 percent who would vote yes for.

He stated that Article 45 of the Constitution
gives the Commission the mandate to educate the population on the electoral process
and its purpose; stating that "in this perspective, the Commission would undertake
vigorous public education and public and voter education ".

He said that they would hold more public
referendum commitments with stakeholders such as civil society,
media, people with disabilities and faith-based organizations.

Mr. Tettey indicated that he badured
Ghanaians that the Commission would ensure that the referendum is a
Success.

"We want to badure the good people of Ghana
that the Commission is ready and does not neglect any effort to carry out a
peaceful and orderly elections for the referendum on the election of MMDCEs,
as well as the DLEs, "he said.

"A challenge we anticipate is
than previously because we only have the DLEs, which is for the election of
Members of the Unity Committee and the members of the Assembly. However, this election is
will be added by another election, which is the referendum. So at each
polling station, instead of having two ballot boxes, which was the case before
in the DLEs, this time around the ballot boxes, there will be three. "

The three ballot boxes include the Assembly
Member, member of the committee of unity and referendum.

He said that in the past, the Commission had the habit of
facing the challenges with the DLEs in terms of participation, as well as the processes
leading to the vote, he therefore called on all stakeholders to contribute to the education
voters in elections; to know what when they arrive at the polling station.

With regard to the referendum, Mr Tettey
said it was going to be a question of yes or no, which voters were going to vote
decide.

He explained that with respect to the
Member of the Assembly, an elector was to vote only for a candidate of his party or
his choice; stating that with respect to the election of the Unity Committee, an elector
was to vote for no more than five candidates.

"That's where the challenge lies. And
this where we have to do an intensive voter education, so that voters, who participate
at the polling station, do not confuse the vote.

GNA