The CSOs comprises some 18 groups facing the EC to drop its decision to compile new register.
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18 CSOs fight against EC's proposals for new voters' register
Some civil society groups have kicked against the Electoral Commission's proposal to compile new voters' register for the 2020 polls.
Jean Mensa
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The groups under the Ghana Anti-Corruption Coalition (GACC) believe the nation does not, in the face of the present facts, need to throw out everything and acquire a new infrastructure when the present system can be augmented and be made capable of performing the task.
The CSOs are; Ghana Anti-Corruption Coalition (GACC), IMANI Africa, SEND Ghana, Africa Centre for International Law and Accountability (ACILA), Financial Accountability and Transparency – Africa (FAT-Africa), Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA), Youth Bridge Foundation, West Africa Civil Society Institute (WACSI), Citizens Movement against Corruption (CMaC) and Human Rights Advocacy Centre (HRAC).
The rest are: Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII), Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI), Women in Law and Development in Africa (WiLDAF), Institute for Democratic Governance (IDEG), Parliamentary Network Africa (PNA) and ISODEC.
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A press statement signed by all the CSOs, stated that it will rather be prudent to "open up the electoral register for voters to verify their names, update the existing software in ways to make it more efficient, remove names of persons suspected dead or who do not verify, work with the vendors to prime the hardware and where needed replace faulty ones and acquire new hardware to augment the existing stock and work with the existing systems rather than a full end-to-end replacement.
"We reject the EC's informal, off the grapevine, costing of the alternatives to a full end-to-end replacement. We stand ready to debate the EC in any forum it prefers about its costing."
Read the full statement by the CSOs:
RECOMMENDATIONS FROM 18 CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANIZATION ON WHAT GHANA SHOULD DO ABOUT THIS NEW REGISTER DISAGREEMENT.
The EC should:
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1. Open up the electoral register for voters to verify their names.
2. Update the existing software in ways to make it more efficient.
3. Remove names of persons suspected dead or who do not verify.
4. Work with the vendors to prime the hardware and where needed replace faulty ones.
5. Acquire new hardware to augment the existing stock and work with the existing systems. This is the more justified approach given time and resource considerations and indeed is the most technically feasible and defensible approach compared to totally replacing the entire system at great cost and running the nation through the trauma of another voter registration exercise.
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We reject the EC’s informal, off the grapevine, costing of the alternatives to a full end-to-end replacement. We stand ready to debate the EC in any forum it prefers about its costing.
We need to bear in mind that the NIA has struggled to complete its exercise in 3 years, so the EC purporting to do this in less than 1 year suggests a very stressful time for everyone with no guarantees of success, but a definite requirement for huge resource expenditure.
As a nation, if there is a need for collecting fresh data on citizens, the more appropriate, most lawful and financially responsible and justified approach will be to:
1. let the NIA (The legally mandated Authority for collecting national identification data) collect and process the information.
2. The NIA should then send the EC the subset of the information it needs for the purpose of the election.
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3. The EC can then use that information to update its systems.
This way the nation moves forward and avoids the wasteful duplication of efforts at great expense
SIGNED:
Ghana Anti-Corruption Coalition (GACC)
IMANI Africa
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SEND Ghana
Africa Centre for International Law and Accountability (ACILA)
Financial Accountability and Transparency – Africa (FAT-Africa)
Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA)
Youth Bridge Foundation West Africa Civil Society Institute (WACSI)
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Citizens Movement against Corruption (CMaC)
Human Rights Advocacy Centre (HRAC)
Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII) Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI)
Women in Law and Development in Africa (WiLDAF)
Institute for Democratic Governance (IDEG)
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Parliamentary Network Africa (PNA)
ISODEC.
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