Prior to the registration of the new voter roll, some political parties, civil society organisations raised genuine concerns to the EC to shun the registration.
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Opinion: New voters' register unnecessary
Looking at the days left to the general presidential and parliamentary elections, it's not important for the Electoral Commission (EC) to compile a new voters' register.
Voters registration
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Some argued it's a total waste of financial resources, energy, and time.
They believe the EC is purposefully attempting to disenfranchise some people with the new register.
Huge sums of money are spent on the registration exercise which could be used for development.
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The EC used GH¢444,846,663 for the compilation of the new voters' register after it asked Parliament to approve.
Ghana is left with 112 days to the general elections and the EC just completed it's voters' registration exercise and said it should at least conduct an exercise to clean-up the document by removing names of persons deemed ineligible to be on the roll.
EC Chair, Jean Mensa
Pulse Ghana
After the exercise, the EC claims it has detected minors on foreigners on the new voters' roll adding that it'll delete the names to ensure a credible, a case many said it's absurd and infantile.
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So after the deletion, names of Ghanaians the EC claim are foreigners will be disenfranchised of their civil rights to elect who rules them?
Before the registration started, the EC said anyone without a passport or the Ghana card needs someone to guarantee to be a registered voter, a case also deemed to be unnecessary.
Over 35,000 applicants were challenged during the registration exercise.
Some 16.9 million persons have registered to vote but the Commission expects this figure to drop after the adjudication and duplication processes.
The Commission had projected to register 15 million eligible Ghanaians in the 38-day mass registration exercise but exceeded that target after registering 16,663,669.
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Historically, the registration exercise does not attract as big a turnout as the general one does, the exercise is very crucial because it will allow first-timers to register not only to participate in this year's elections but future elections as well.
One of the electoral offenses is the inclusion of minors (voters less than 18 years old) in the voter register.
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There is no denying the fact that the issue of minors on the register can create needless concerns and push the country to the brink of conflict and violence.
But the questions begging for answers are who should be held responsible for getting minors in the register? Indeed, how did these minors in the first place get their names into the register and who are responsible for this problem?
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It's also an electoral offense that is the penchant of some political parties to bring nationals from neighbouring countries to register in Ghana. Some registrants also want to have their names in the register of voters in more than one polling station.
EC Chairperson, Jean Mensa said steps have been taken to remove all illegal registrants before the December polls.
The clean-up is to ensure credibility ahead of the 2020 presidential and parliamentary polls.
The exercise is one of the important activities the EC will be rolling out for the smooth conduct of the elections.
Some Ghanaians have argued that there is no need for an independent audit of the new Voters' register.
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But the NPP and the NDC and political parties should bear in mind, whether new or old voters' register alone will not win them an election, otherwise, NDC should have won in 2016.
The timing for the exercise is not the best and if another political party comes to power after 2020 and because of the shoddy nature of the job the current EC will do or has done, the next administration will also have to compile a new voters' register.
Therefore, the timing for the new voters' register and the exercise in general by the EC is erroneous, reprehensible and unacceptable.
Pulse Editor's Opinion is the opinion of an editor of Pulse. It does not represent the opinion of the organization Pulse.
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