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We will be objective – Five-member EC panel

The EC has made provisions for the hearings to be broadcast live on radio, television and on the internet for the benefit of Ghanaians who cannot attend but wish to follow the proceedings.

 

A member of the Electoral Commission’s (EC) five-member panel chairing the forum on the new voters register has promised to be objective in carrying out his mandate.

Most Rev. Prof Emmanuel Asante who is also the chairman of the National Peace Council said he owes it a duty to God and to his country “to try as much as possible to be objective in terms of my recommendation vis a vis the issue on hand.”

“I am going to discharge my duties with objectivity, without fear or favour,” he stressed.

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The five-member panel will chair a two-day forum organized by the EC to hear out the various political parties and groups who made submissions on the need or otherwise for a new voters register to be put in place for the 2016 general elections.

The hearings will take place on Thursday, October 29th and Friday, October 30th, 2015 at Alisa Hotel in Accra from 10:00hrs to 13:00hrs and 14:00hrs to 17:00hrs daily.

The findings and recommendations of the Panel will be presented to the EC for final decision and communication to the public.

In an interview on Radio Ghana on Wednesday, Most Rev. Asante stated that he is of the firm believe that his colleagues on the panel will equally be “objective enough, will be level headed to listen to the submissions put before them and not allow their own political inclinations or whatever they think is right to control them.”

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He indicated that he tries as much as possible “not to be influenced by the debate in the media in respect of the voters register.”

He explained that “if you are going to be a referee, you don’t allow yourself to be swayed by any kind of arguments here and there or be intimated by statements from various quarters so I try as much as possible not to listen too much to what is being said.”

Most Rev. Asante added that he is expecting the political parties to come and defend their submissions which will ultimately help them make the needed recommendations for the EC to take action.

The panel members are His Lordship Professor V.C.R.A.C. Crabbe, former Justice of the Supreme Court of Ghana and former Electoral Commissioner of Ghana; Most Reverend Professor Emmanuel Asante, former Presiding Bishop of the Methodist Church of Ghana and Chairman of the National Peace Council; Dr. Grace Bediako, former Head of the Statistical Service and former member of the National Development Planning Commission; Dr. Nii Narku Quaynor, a renowned computer scientist, Chairman of the National Information Technology Agency (NITA) Board of Directors, and President of the Internet Society of Ghana; and Maulvi Bin Salih, Ameer of the Ahmadiyya Mission of Ghana.

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