Monday, September 16, 2024, is exactly 82 days to the Saturday, December 7, 2024, presidential and parliamentary elections.
The issue of the credibility of the voters register for the pending election is currently the major topic of discussion as the largest opposition political party in Ghana, the National Democratic Congress (NDC), has raised a number of issues about the register, including corrupted files and illegal voter transfers.
The NDC announced "the mother of all demonstrations" on Tuesday, September 17, 2024, to protest against the Electoral Commission of Ghana (EC) over its refusal to meet its demands on the voters register, including an independent audit of the register and a re-exhibition of the register.
The EC has stated that there is no need for the demands of the NDC, including the forensic audit and re-exhibition of the register.
Well, this is not the first time a stakeholder in the election has called for an audit of the election.
The ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), when it was in opposition, also called for an audit of the voters register, citing the presence of foreigners and dead people in the register, prior to the 2016 general election.
The NDC, which was the ruling government then, objected to the call for an audit of the voters register to the 2016 election.
The General Secretary of the NDC then, Johnson Asiedu Nketiah, who is now the National Chairman of the party, argued that the calls were unnecessary because the voters register is cleaned through the voter exhibition exercise.
Speaking at a stakeholder engagement in 2015, Asiedu Nketiah pointed out that the voter exhibition can be used to remove the names of dead people and other anomalies in the register.
"I have indicated that the process of deleting deceased persons is the process of exhibition of the register. After every provisional register is compiled, it is exhibited. Before we go into the elections, the register is exhibited. And the main purpose of the exhibition is for us to raise objections to people whose names are there which ought not to be there.
"There are forms and a means of processing those objections that will lead to the deletion of those names. And it includes the deletion of names of dead people too. So, the opportunity is given for people to present evidence," he said.
The then NDC General Secretary then joked about the then NPP General Secretary, Kwabena Agyapong's name being deleted from the register if someone accuses him of being a dead person without providing evidence.
"Let's face it, the environment we are operating in, it will say people should go and pinpoint the names of dead people for deletion without any evidence. I will go and pinpoint Kwabena Agyapong's name and say he's dead," he jokingly said.
Watch his remarks in the video below:
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