We didn’t agree to limited voter registration at district offices - NDC demands apology from EC

The National Democratic Congress (NDC) has refuted claims by the Electoral Commission (EC) that political parties agreed to the conduction of a limited voter registration at the Commission’s district offices.

The party indicated that it objected to the decision to hold the limited registration during the last IPAC meeting in March since evidence available shows it will end up disenfranchising many qualified potential voters.

The party, according to its General Secretary, proposed that limited registration be done at the level of all electoral areas as it has been the case in the past and gave reasons for its proposal.

Johnson Asiedu Nketia said it came as a shock when the EC during a press conference on Tuesday indicated that the decision to hold the limited registration at the district offices was taken at IPAC.

“You are aware that at the last IPAC meeting which was held on the 171th March 2019, certain matters were discussed, whilst others were simply mentioned without any discussion and therefore no decision was taken on them…” he stated.

According to him, the various political parties accepted the proposal of the registration exercise in principle but there was no agreement on how the exercise should be conducted.

“The EC proposed to conduct the registration at all the District Offices of the Commission. They indicated that this will be done online. This was objected to by the political parties. Some proposed that it should be conducted at the very least, at all constituency centres, but the NDC proposed that it be done at the level of all Electoral Areas. No conclusive decision was taken on this matter and yet tin its press statement after the meeting indicated that it was one of the taken at IPAC. That is not correct and it prompted the NDC to challenge it. The NDC is indeed opposed to any system of registration which will be limited to District offices of the EC.”

The party added that evidence shows that it is a system that will end up disenfranchising many qualified potential voters.