As the discourse over the impending district voter registration conducted by the Electoral Commission (EC) reaches a crescendo, the People’s National Convention (PNC) has distanced itself from a press conference convened by some political parties in the countries.
The political parties, numbering about seven (7), at the conference registered their displeasure over the Electoral Commission’s planned voter registration exercise which is intended to be restricted to only the districts.
General Secretary for the Great Consolidated Popular Party (GCPP), Frederick Ato Dadzie, during the press conference held on Monday, 21 August 2023, indicated that the EC’s intended action would exclude certain potential voters.
“Some Civil Society members present also opined that to ensure the electoral process is participatory and decentralised, it should include, if not all, some electoral areas in a cluster form as done in the past”.
“At least, if the EC cannot do more than 1,500 registration centres as done in 2019, they should maintain the status quo”, he contended.
“We, therefore, suggested that the EC can use 7 days to do the registration exercise at the electoral areas and use another 7 days to do a mop-up exercise at their district offices to even save them time and cost”, he told journalists on behalf of the seven parties,” he said on behalf of the groups.
He further noted that: “The Electoral Commissioners informed us that they have taken our concerns and ‘will get back to us’, a phrase we are well-accustomed to and, so, pushed further for timelines, and they indicated by close of day Monday.”
“Most of us were, therefore, taken aback when we only heard and saw on radio and TV that the Electoral Commission has set a date for the registration exercise and will use only their district offices as registration centres”.
“In conclusion, we also want to publicly call on the Electoral Commission through its Chair, Jean Mensa, to rescind their decision and make the process more accessible and painless to enable the average Ghanaian who is eligible to exercise their right and entitlement to be registered as a voter.”
“This will reflect in the EC’s commitment in building a solid and credible institution to protect the strong and enviable record of Ghana as a beacon of democracy that will continue to be worthy of emulation across the continent,” he noted.
The PNC, however, has indicated that it does not share in the views of this group.
“While the PNC, indeed, holds reservations concerning the aforementioned decision made by the Electoral Commission, it is imperative to clarify that the party did not provide its endorsement for the said press conference conducted by the other minority political parties”. “Therefore, the PNC seeks to explicitly distance itself from the content and implications of the press release issued during the event”.
Meanwhile, the EC has scheduled the exercise to commence from September 12, to October 2, 2023. EC Chairperson Jean Mensa announced that the exercise would be held in all the 268 district offices of the EC across the country.