Member of Parliament representing South Dayi under the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Rockson-Nelson Dafeamekpor has expressed his view that the decision of the Electoral Commission (EC) not to conduct the ongoing limited voter registration outside of its district offices is not justifiable.

Mrs. Jean Mensa, the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission, has attributed their inability to expand the voter registration exercise partly to Parliament's actions, specifically the failure to approve the new Constitutional Instrument (C.I) that the Commission had presented for endorsement.

In addressing the various concerns and criticisms surrounding the ongoing registration process, Mrs. Jean Mensa conveyed that the Commission finds itself in a highly challenging predicament due to these circumstances.

In an interview with Joy News, “As you are all aware, the Commission prepared a draft C.I for continuous registration in all district offices nationwide. This initiative started last year and the registration we were envisioning under the draft C.I was for a sustained long-term basis.

“Indeed, had the C.I been passed we would have had some six months this year to register voters at any time of their choice. Our 2023 budget and work plan were prepared along those lines. Our 2023 work-plan and budget were based on a continuous registration of voters in our district offices nationwide, we did not factor electoral area registration in our 2023 work plan and budget,” she explained.

Mr Dafeamekpor,explained why the EC’s use of the C.I. as an excuse is flawed.

“The EC Commissioner and her deputies lied against the institution of parliament. Sometime in November 2022, after the 2023 budget was read, the EC came to parliament with what they called Medium-Term Expenditure Framework as well as its budgetary expenditure for 2023. The MTEF run from 2023, 2024, 2025, and 2026 as its work program. Parliament never tainted anything in that work program. In addition to that, parliament approved the budget that the EC asked for. The EC actually asked for as much as GHS 386,047,606 as its budget for 2023.

“Out of that budget, the EC specifically asked for GHS 66, 059,846 as the budget for its continuous registration, and that is the language of the C.I. The EC never needs a new law in order to carry out its mandate as this present registration has demonstrated. The position of the minority has always been that you don’t need a new law to carry out your mandate. What does the existing law say about registration? If you go to C.I. 91, Regulation 2, sub-regulation 1(a) which is on registration centres, speaks of the fact that the EC can conduct registration at its district offices.

He further explained that, “in sub-regulation 2(2) it says that the EC in designating other registration centres may take certain factors into consideration especially access and convenience. In sub-regulation 2 sub-regulation 4 of C.1. as amended by C..I. 126, parliament was very clear that in granting that discretion to the Electoral Commission to designate additional registration centres, it could be abused. So what did parliament do? Parliament said, you must take into consideration the existing gazetted polling stations when you want to consider additional registration centers in the district.

The National Democratic Congress (NDC) and five other political parties have already filed a lawsuit against the Electoral Commission (EC) over the choice.

The political parties that are up in arms believe that the EC's decision to limit the registration centres to district offices could potentially deny many eligible voters their right to register as voters and cast ballots in public elections.

According to Dr. Serebour Quaicoe, director of electoral services for the Commission, eligible voters who are unable to register at one of the Commission's district offices nationwide will have to do so in the following election.

He stated that once the EC receives parliamentary approval for its Constitutional Instrument, C.I., special arrangements will be made for difficult-to-reach areas. He claims that the Commission will also conduct a continuous registration process in its offices, which will accommodate potential voters whenever they come in.