2004 Elections In Danger

The period July 11 25, 2004 passed without any significance. What many Ghanaians do not know is that, that two-week period was what was scheduled for the nationwide exhibition of the new voters? register by the Electoral Commission?s own time table.

In the EC?s ?Programme of Activities on ?Voter Registration 2004?, public education on the exhibition was to begin on May 21, 2004. ?Adjudication (on) complaints and petitions (from exhibition exercise) is to be completed on August 7.?

The programme also has August 31, 2004 as the day ?printing of final registers (is) to be completed.? Meanwhile, the EC failed to show up at a Socialist Forum of Ghana public discussion of last Friday July 23, on the theme: ?The Voters? Registration Exercise and it Impact on the December Elections.?

Speaking at the forum deplored the arrogant silence of the EC, and wondered if it is the same Commission that is highly respected internationally that we are dealing with. They deplored the strange posture adopted by the EC, treating Ghanaians with contempt, by not responding to genuine and legitimate concerns raised about discrepancies arising out of their own released figures on the registration exercise.