EC to establish new voter register for 2020 elections

General News of Thursday, March 28, 2019

Source: citinewsroom.com

2019-03-28

The Electoral Commission is to establish a new register of voters for the upcoming presidential and legislative elections in Ghana.

The decision was made at a meeting of the Inter-party Advisory Committee (IPAC) held today (Wednesday, March 27, 2019).

The Election Commission (EC) said in a statement after the meeting: "The Commission will establish a new register of voters ahead of the presidential and legislative elections of 2020".

Among the plans for the general elections is a new constitutional instrument to badess and guide the financial situation of the different political parties.

The Commission is preparing a draft constitutional instrument to regulate and streamline the format of financial reports and audited accounts of political parties, "the statement added.

Before the 2016 general election, Charlotte Osei, former EC president, had been forced to clean the voters' lists to correct what the writers had described as anomalies in the current.

The call for the new electoral register sparked a series of demonstrations, some of which became violent. The political lobby group, Let My Vote Count Alliance, alleges that the registry of the time was "inflated" and could not be used for the 2016 election, hence the insistence on a new one.

But after much deliberation today, IPAC and the EC have made the following key decisions:

1. District elections and referendums will be held on the same day in the last quarter of 2019.

2. The Commission will proceed to a limited registration of new voters before the district-level elections and referendum in May 2019. Registration will take place in all district offices of the Electoral Commission across the country.

3. The Commission will establish a new register of electors before the 2010 presidential and legislative elections.

Calls for a new register

At the time, the then opposition National Patriotic Party (NPP) claimed to have solid evidence that the voters' registry was in place at the time.

The CODEO, the Coalition of National Election Observers, also added its voice to a blank voter register for the 2016 elections.

The ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) argued that it would be costly to respond to calls from the New Patriotic Party (NPP) for a new voter register.

The party said that at that time, the country did not need a new register of voters citing economic issues as a major factor.