EC highly independent to handle auditing of voters register - NPP MP tells NDC

The New Patriotic Party Member of Parliament for Manhyia North, Collins Owusu Amankwah says there can be no other independent body that could deliver a clean register than the Electoral Commission.

Speaking on Ghana Kasa on Kasapa 102.5 FM/Agoo T.V, the lawmaker thus urged the opposition NDC to rest assured that the constitutionally mandated body(EC) would do a good job to rid the register of the excesses currently contained in it after the mass registration exercise.

“Take advantage of the productive time to show to Ghanaians that you’re the best alternative party to take over the reins of government and stop the childish enthusiasm; It’s irrelevant.

“They’re saying they have no trust in the constitutionally independent body, how independent is the body that you’re calling to audit the electoral register? he questioned.

The main opposition NDC has discredited the new voters register calling for an independent audit into the just-ended registration exercise.

Director of Elections, Elvis Afriyie Ankrah in a Press conference in Accra cited multiple registrations as grounds for the party’s demand.

“…because we’re reliably informed that the EC’s own Biometric system is defective and therefore de-duplicating registrants by itself,” he stated.

But Mr. Amankwah, who is also the Chairman of the Parliamentary-Select Committee on Government Assurances, argued that the NDC wants to undermine the current crop of EC officials, hence it’s not surprising the position they’ve taken in the lead up to the 2020 elections.

Meanwhile, the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission (EC), Jean Adukwei Mensa, has said that everything humanly possible will be done to ensure the nation’s electoral register is purged of all ineligible voters, especially foreigners who have found their way onto the electoral roll.

A total of 16,963,306 voters were captured in the provisional electoral roll, exceeding the Commission’s 15 million eligible voters target. The figure is slightly above the 16,845,420 registered voters in the old voter register.