Voters register: NDC exposes EC's inconsistencies, contradictions

Elvis Afriyie Ankrah, the Director of Elections for the NDC has catalogued a number of issues which he believes are inconsistencies and contradictions by the Electoral Commission (EC) in their dealings with his party and Ghanaians over the voters' register.

With six months left for the 2020 elections to be held, there remains a standstill over the voters' register.

The NDC has been consistent with its opposition to a new voter roll, insisting that majority of Ghanaians could be denied their voting rights should the EC go ahead with its decision.

The EC on the other hand has maintained that a new register is the best way of ensuring that it delivers on it mandate of free and fair elections, a position which appears to have the absolute approval of the ruling NPP.

Last week, the major protagonists in this debate showed yet again their respective resolve to keep accusing each other and ignore the role of facts, evidence and reason in public discourse.

Elvis Afriyie Ankrah told Joy News that the EC is going back on some decisions it took earlier.

The former Sports Minister alleged that the EC is creating conditions that will make it unfavorable for some Ghanaians to register and exercise their voting rights come December 7.

“When this whole debate about a new voters register started, we started going round, speaking to civil society and press conferences and in response the EC produced a document and in this document slide 27, they asked themselves a question because they were responding to issues: ‘Is the EC discarding all previous data?' and they responded 'No' with three exclamation marks. The EC will use the existing data of voters during the registration of voters into the new voters' register. To be registered into the new register existing voters need to only present their existing voter's ID card to the registration officer'. At IPAC we asked them if they were going to use the old voter's ID. They said 'yes'. Are you going to use the NIA? They said 'No'. So if a public institution like the EC you inform Ghanaians that you are going to use a particular card which is germane to all the discussions and for some strange reason you send a CI to Parliament and in that CI the voters register which consistently has been part of the process is taken out and the requirement are only the passport and NIA card.....”, narrated Elvis Afriyie Ankrah.

“There was a time Ken Attafuah suggested that the NIA card could be a source document for the EC. The EC came out categorically and said 'no' and that they don’t think they will need the NIA card and that they will do their own thing so what happened they went to Parliament to lay a CI that says you will need a passport or NIA card”.

Afriyie Ankrah went on to list some further decisions of the EC which according to him are contradictory.

His claims of the EC conniving with the NIA and NPP to rig the 2020 Elections were rejected by NPP MP Alex Afenyo-Markin who was also a guest on the show.