NDC Demands Release of Provisional Voter Register
The opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) is demanding the immediate release of provisional voter register by the Electoral Commission (EC) of Ghana in accordance with CI 91 as amended by CI 126.
According to the party, this failure by the Commission few days to 2024 EXHIBITION of the Provisional Voter Register and their continuous rescheduling of the release exposes its inefficiencies and ineffectiveness.
In a statement, the Director of Elections and IT of the NDC, Edward Omane Boamah said the EC had finally decided to release the register on Friday- a schedule he says is inappropriate.
“The EC wrote to the NDC on the 18th of July 2024, requesting that we bring an external drive (2 terabytes) for the PVR to be loaded for us. We responded to their request by submitting the external drive with additional request for all 16 regional registers code books.
“Unfortunately, for well over two weeks, the EC refused to honor their obligation per CI 91 as amended by CI 126. Caught with this, the EC surprisingly wrote to us on the 8th of August 2024 now saying they will release the PVR on the 14th of August 2024, six clear days to the exhibition exercise which starts next week on the 20th of August 2024.”
Lamenting about the challenge the party will confront in packaging and dispatching the register to their officials in the over 38,000 Polling stations across country to enhance scrutiny in the exhibition, he argued that the action of the Commission is fueled by incompetence and a deliberate attempt to “dump a sub-standard Provisional Voter Register on political parties in a short period, to make it difficult for interested parties to critically peruse the register before the Exhibition starts, next week”.
This adds up to the growing concerns the NDC is developing about the electoral system ahead of the elections in December.
The party has therefore called on CSOs, religious bodies, and diplomatic missions to take an interest in the activities of the EC.