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Policy of Monday, January 28, 2019
Source: clbadfmonline.com
2019-01-28
Photo file
The six leading members of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), the main opposition party, petitioned the National Party Election Committee about what they perceive as an anomaly in the voters list that will be used for the next primary.
The six, Mr. Alban Bagbin, Mr. Nurudeen Iddrisu, Mr. Sylvester Mensah, Mr. Ekwow Spio-Garbrah, Mr. Goosie Tanoh and Professor Joshua Alabi, transmitted the petition to the President of the NDC National Council of Elders, former President Jerry John Rawlings; the party's general secretary, Johnson Asiedu Nketia, and the president, Samuel Ofosu Ampofo.
They want the NDC Election Committee to provide each of them with an electoral list with the photographs of all the delegates by their names.
In the petition, they expressed reservations on the voters list consisting of "a simple list of names without a photo, without a voter ID card number or even with a membership card number. ;a party".
"There is also a considerable inconsistency in formatting. Our concern, of course, is that this approach creates opportunities for usurping voter identity and unnecessary confusion on polling day, "they said.
In an interview with Clbad News, Spio-Garbrah said the six of them were not trying to make the polls believe that some party members claimed it, but simply wanted things to be done for a free and fair electoral process.
According to him, they heard rumors that a particular candidate would have received the number of all the delegates and this candidate, whose name he took, whistled messages to all delegates, urging them to vote for him.
Second Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Mr. Bagbin explained to Valentina Ofori-Afriyie of Clbad91.3FM during the badysis program of 505 news Monday that January 28, 2019, it was important that all be put on a walking footing. equality in the electoral process.
He wondered why the party had asked a private printing company to print the ballots, while, according to him, the State Assembly, a state press , could easily have been hired to do this job. away with suspicions.
His colleague Nurudeen Iddrisu agreed with Mr. Bagbin on the same program, adding that having access to delegates' phone numbers and photographs would help them campaign in the five regions that He has not visited yet.
In response, however, Peter Otokunor, deputy general secretary of the party, told Valentina, citing the same program, that the party was waiting for the six candidates to aspire to use the consultation mechanisms through which they discussed, so that their grievances would be dealt with. use the media.
On the specific case of printing the ballots, Otokunor said a dedicated New Patriotic Party (NPP) member, David Asante, a member of the Let My Vote Count Alliance lobby group, is At the head of the Assembly press, the suggestion that the state-owned printing press would be responsible for printing the ballots was problematic.
He said that the Assembly press led by Mr. Asante could do nothing good.
Former President John Mahama, who is also challenging this position, has not yet expressed concerns about the electoral process.
Read the complete petition below
January 23, 2019
National election guidelines
We refer to our discussions last Sunday at the seat of the party. We have made considerable progress in establishing "free and fair" guidelines for the presidential primaries – so much so that we have agreed to conduct a scrutiny and vote pending the text of the new guidelines.
We now hope to receive an update on your proposed discussions with the Council of Elders and the current state of the process.
In the meantime, we want to revisit two issues we discussed on Sunday – the nature of the voters list and the choice of a company to print ballots.
Electoral list of primary electoral colleges
We are deeply concerned that the voters register provided to Aspirants yesterday simply consists of a list of names without a photo, without a voter card number or even with a membership card number of a party. . There is also a considerable inconsistency in formatting. Our concern is obviously that this approach creates opportunities for usurping voter identity and unnecessary confusion on polling day.
The use of a voters list with images has been a common electoral practice in Ghana since 2000: it allows polling agents to verify the identity of potential voters at the polling station and significantly reduce the risk of spoofing. 'identity. We know that the party would not agree to participate in a national election using an electoral list that provides neither photos nor identification numbers. We are of the opinion that the provision of a rolling EC standard clearly meets the requirements of "free and fair" provided for in the settlement reached last Thursday in the Ali / NDC case.
We also know that the party's re-registration exercise (designed specifically to allow the party to specifically identify its members for purposes such as elections) has allowed for the entry of identity card numbers. of the elector of the members. We know that raw data exists at the constituency level (where it was used for CEC elections). It should not be too difficult to update the list of electors and provide voter ID numbers. We have checked informally with the EC and can confirm that if the party provides this information, the EC can print a list of primary electoral colleges including pictures and the voter identification number in a few days .
We recognize that, in a few cases (mainly TEIN members), registrants have not reached the age of voting at the time of the last voter registration exercise at the national level and are not eligible to vote. therefore had no voter ID card to use during the re-registration exercise of the party last year. We are aware that special provisions will have to be made to avoid depriving members of their voting rights and we are willing to be flexible in achieving this.
Printing of ballot papers
We are also deeply concerned by the apparent decision to award the contract for the printing of the ballots to the same company that printed the ballots for the November CEN elections. As you probably know, several candidates and observers of these elections described important irregularities in the ballots (among other irregularities). These include the incorrect restitution of candidate names, misalignment of images and names, and the presence of duplicate ballots (ie with the same supposed "unique" serial number). All of these irregularities were cited in a speech that calls for the legitimacy of the results of some of the CEN elections in question.
Again, in the context of the story quoted above, we consider that this choice would run counter to the spirit and even the letter of the "free and fair" commitment set out in the Settlement Agreement. .
At our meeting last Sunday, we found that the EC had accredited a number of printers for this type of work, including Assembly Press, which is a state-owned facility. We would prefer to work with one of these printing houses. This is also in line with the commitment that after the vote for positions on the voting sheet, the process would be managed by the EC.
We would also like a briefing on election day logistics and in particular on transportation and food with your committee as soon as possible and, hopefully, next week.
Our teams are immediately available to meet with the FEC or the Election Committee to discuss these issues and find acceptable solutions that will not further disrupt the proposed electoral calendar.
cordially
Alban SK Bagbin
Nurideen Ali
Sylvester Mensah
Ekwow Spio-Garbrah
Goosie Tanoh
Joshua Alabi
cc:
L & # 39; Hon. Johnson Asiedu-Nketiah
General secretary
SE Flt Jerry John Rawlings
President of the National Seniors Council
L & # 39; Hon. Samuel Ofusu-Ampofo
President and Chief
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