The National Democratic Congress (NDC) is calling for a more cordial relationship with the Electoral Commission (EC) following recent tensions over the limited voter registration exercise.
Addressing a press conference on Thursday, the NDC’s Chairman, Samuel Ofosu Ampofo, urged the commission to be open to dialogue to ensure the voter registration exercise becomes successful.
“We, as a party, have cooperated with the EC and so the EC should not see the NDC as enemies…it is because of the political parties that the EC exists,” he stressed, adding that the EC can’t carry out the registration without the help of the political parties.
“Without the involvement of political parties, I do not think that the EC could have done this registration so our advice is that it is early days yet. We are ready to meet them and offer constructive suggestions and advice that will help move the process forward.”
Because of network challenges that have plagued the process, the NDC has, for one, advocated for the use of offline equipment to ensure the process is more inclusive and decentralised.
“We are ready to meet them and offer constructive suggestions and advice that will help move the process forward and ensure that the nearly One million Ghanaian voters who are of age and want to register by the period provided are not disenfranchised.”
One of the NDC’s pleas is that the EC should make use of the offline equipment, some of which reportedly need servicing.
The party maintains that the EC has the funds to refurbish the offline equipment.
“If those monies and facilities are available, it is early days yet so nothing prevents the EC from going back to refurbish this equipment, creating more centres and making life a little bearable for the people of this country,” Mr. Ofosu Ampofo said.
The party pointed to the long queues and waiting times at some of the centres describing them as unreasonable.
“The complaints that are coming from Kasoa and Awutu Senya areas are that with this sprawling population, very few equipment have been deployed and people have to wake up early. Why should we burden Ghanaians to wake up at 4 am or 3 am to go and queue simply because they want to register to vote.”
The limited voters’ registration exercise took off this past Monday and is expected to end on Sunday, July 7, 2019.
A total of 1,573 electoral areas have been designated nationwide to cater for persons who were located at hard-to-reach areas after complaints by the National Democratic Congress (NDC).
The EC expects to register 700, 000 new prospective voters.
Source:citinewsroom.com
