Speed up investigation on voters registration violence - NPC

The National Peace Council (NPC) has called on the Ghana Police Service to expedite investigations into criminal acts that occurred at registration centres in the just-ended voters' registration exercise.

In a statement signed by its Chairman, the Most Reverend Professor Emmanuel Asante, the Council said: “the EC, the Ghana Immigration Service and the Ghana Police Service should leave no stone unturned in investigating the circumstances that led to the registration of some 66 persons purported to be citizens of La Cote d’Ivoire at Banda constituency in the Bono region; and officers found to have illegally registered the Ivorians must face the full of the electoral laws of Ghana”.

The council further stated that “the commission must vigorously pursue and resolve the petitions challenging the registration of some persons estimated at 37,762 representing 0.02 per cent of the total register and update the people in the Commission’s instituted ‘Let the Citizen know’ series”.

To guarantee citizens confidence in the integrity of the new voters’ register, the NPC called on the Commission to validate the voter register and expunge names of unqualified persons, such as minors and foreign nationals.

The Council called on stakeholders particularly political parties to continue to abide by the road map and code of conduct in the eradication of all kinds of vigilantism and election related-violence.

The Council also called on the Ghana Police Service to institute a platform that would regularly inform the public about the progress of such ongoing investigations and engender trust and confidence in the processes ahead of the December 2020 election.