Electoral Commission (EC) of Ghana has denied allegations that it has withheld the voters’ register from political parties.
During a press conference on Monday, August 19, 2024, Deputy Electoral Commissioner Dr. Bossman Asare confirmed that the political parties have already received a copy of the voters’ register ahead of the voter exhibition exercise set to begin on August 20, 2024.
He also emphasized that the commission remains within its scheduled timeline for distributing the register, according to citinewsroom.com.
“We have heard in sections of the media that the commission has not given the provisional voter register to the political parties after informing the parties to bring their external drives.
We want to place on record that, per Regulation 22 of CI 31 as amended by CI 126, the commission is required to give the provisional register to the political parties not later than three months from the end of the registration period.
“As you may be aware, the limited registration ended on May 29, 2024, and the mop-up registration ended on August 3, 2023.”
Dr. Asare clarified that the NDC had collected its external drive containing copies of the register.
“On the basis of the limited registration, the commission has until the end of August 2024 to give the provisional register of the political parties. We wish to state that the external drives containing the provisional voters register are available for pickup.
However, we can say from the records that the NDC has collected its external drive. The other parties have also collected,” he stated.
The statement of the EC comes in the wake of pressure mounted by political parties for the release of the voters register ahead of the voter’s exhibition exercise on Tuesday, August 20, 2024.