Prime News Ghana

EC responds to NDC's allegations over voter's exhibition exercise

By Mutala Yakubu
Jean Mensa is the EC Chair
Jean Mensa is the EC Chair
Shares
facebook sharing button Share
twitter sharing button Tweet
email sharing button Email
sharethis sharing button Share

The Electoral Commission (EC) has responded to some allegations levelled against them by the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) concerning the voter's registration exercise.


The NDC held a press conference on Thursday, September 19, 2019, and accused the EC of supervising a shambolic voters’ register exhibition exercise.

According to the party, the EC’s failure to provide them with a provisional register, change of codes of polling centres without consultation, absence of expected numbers of registered voters in polling stations among others, are some challenges that the exercise has been fraught with.

READ ALSO:  NDC sues EC over voters’ register

General Secretary of the NDC, Johnson Asiedu Nketia said the party is disappointed with the process so far.

“It is a well-calculated plan to create this confusion. When we were getting to the beginning of this exercise and we knew the law they had provided indicated that they have to provide copies of the register even before the exercise begins, we started writing to them.”

“Jean Mensah herself called me on phone, acknowledging receipt of a letter we sent to request for a register and said that ‘oh tell your people we have received the letter but the hard drive onto which the information to be downloaded is not attached.’ Meanwhile, my election director was sitting with the people with the hard drive and they were finding it difficult to provide information so how can you be running a democracy without rule of law. Without speaking to the rules you have established.”

In a statement released hours after the NDC press briefing, the Commission said such allegations are calculated at creating an erroneous impression in the minds of the right-thinking members of the public.

“Like all other political parties, the EC would have expected the NDC to use dialogue channels open or available other established lines of communication to address their concerns.

“It is unfortunate that the NDC continues to use mediums of the media to raise concerns which can easily be resolved after deliberations with the Electoral Commission,” the EC said.

The Exhibition of the Voters Register commenced on Tuesday, September 10 and will end on September 20, 2019.

Below is the EC’s statement

READ ALSO: Voters' exhibition exercise : EC should quickly resolve challenges - John Mahama

 

Â