EC officials empowered to challenge eligibility of voters

Aside party officials including polling agents challenging the eligibility of voters, officers of the Electoral Commission (EC) will also have powers to do same, a Deputy Commission has revealed.

All challenges, however, will be through the filling of challenge forms, the senior electoral officer said, not by physical confrontation.

This is part of the changes that are being made to the constitutional instrument (CI) to guide the 2016 polls – CI 91.

Deputy Commissioner Georgina Opoku Amankwaa made all these known on Tuesday, April 19 when she took her turn on the hot seat on Onua FM’s Yen Sempa.

In charge of finance and administration, the Deputy Commissioner assured that after the laying of CI 91 before Parliament on March 17, 2016, the new regulations will replace CI 72, which was used to administer the 2012 polls.

‘Active political parties’

She said as per the new regulation, the Commission will inaugurate District Registration Review Committees across the country to help in the review of challenges to voters’ eligibility.

The committees will be made up of active political parties, Madam Opoku Amankwaa pointed out.

She said it is likely they will start sitting from May 10, two days after the limited registration exercise scheduled to begin on Thursday, April 28.

There will be an exhibition of the register later on to afford all stakeholders an opportunity to see for the first time the register to be used for the 2016 election.

This is, however, not going to be compulsory, she stressed.

On the recent rumpus over "validation" of the register, Madam Opoku Amankwaa expressed surprise from what quarters such a demand is coming as she claimed the report by the five-member committee recommended "verification or validation" not strictly the latter.