The Electoral Commission (EC) of Ghana is unperturbed about protests of some political parties against a new voter roll.
The election management body insisted few hours after the ‘Tikusayi’ demonstration in Tamale on Saturday that it would continue to acquire a new register in the face of protests.
Less than 24 hours after the march by at least seven political parties and other organizations, the EC posted some 12 questions and answers about the register on its official Facebook page.
Among the questions was whether the EC will implement their proposal for a new voter roll despite objections to which the Commission answered in the affirmative.
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“Yes, the Commission will continue with the process of acquiring a new biometric system because it is in the national interest to conduct credible elections as mandated by law,†the post stated.
The EC maintained that the voter roll is bloated and has become “very difficult to remove the names of the deceased from the registerâ€.
The recent District Level Elections in December 2019 recorded 38,843 manual verification out of a total of 5, 431,902 electorate. The solution for this abnormality is “the introduction of facial recognitionâ€, the EC explained, adding it “will completely eliminate manual verificationâ€.
Organised by the Inter-Party Resistance Against a New Voters’ Register (IPRNA), the demonstrations will also be held in Kumasi and Accra on January 21, and 28 respectively.
Members of the IPRNA include the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Progressive People’s Party (PPP), Convention People’s Party (CPP), People’s National Convention (PNC), Eagle Party, All People’s Congress (APC), United Peoples Party (UPP) and the United Front Party (UFP).
They are fighting the acquisition of a new voter roll less than a year to the presidential and parliamentary polls scheduled for December 2020.
The EC requested and parliament has already approved about GH¢400million for the exercise to compile a new register.
