EC ambushing us with offline registration – NDC

The National Democratic Congress (NDC) says the Electoral Commission ambushed political parties on Monday when they decided to resort to offline registration after their internet connection failed them in the ongoing limited registration in the country.

According to the Ashanti regional secretary of the NDC Kwame Zuh, the parties predicted the internet challenges but the EC pushed back and insisted on the using the current procedure of registration.

“We’ll not countenance the use of BVDs this morning. It will not be acceptable by any of our agents across the country. If everyone could regularly predict that our internet system is not reliable but the EC insisted it means they have an agenda.

“Yesterday the EC ambushed us. They decided to use the offline system without informing any of the stakeholders,” he told Francis Abban on the Morning Starr Tuesday.

However, the Ashanti regional director of the EC, Benjamin Bioh said the exercise has been smooth so far.

“Before we switched to the offline system, the agents of all the political parties were informed. Yesterday we managed to register over 3000 people in the A/R. Political parties do not determine the mode of registration and it is one thing the NDC should get clear. We have a back up which is an offline system and so when we have challenges we can switch to that platform”.

The Limited Registration Exercise allows Potential voters and others who have attained the age of 18 are expected to be captured on the country’s voters’ register ahead of the referendum for the election of Metropolitan, Municipal and Districts (MMDCEs) in December 2019.