Will NDC boycott December polls if coronavirus is still around? – Majority Leader quizzes

Majority Leader, Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu says reasons assigned by the Minority in Parliament to kick against the compilation of the new voters’ registers by the Electoral Commission (EC) are skeptical.

According to him, the minority have raised concerns about the COVID-19 pandemic as part of their reasons for the EC to rescind its decision to compile a new register for the December 7, polls.

Will NDC participate?

Speaking on NEAT FM’s morning show ‘Ghana Montie’, Kyei Mensah Bonsu admitted that the COVID-19 pandemic is “worrying”, but stressed preparations towards the December polls must “work”.

“By December 7, we have to go to the polls. So, I asked them [NDC], those saying because COVID-19 we shouldn’t compile a new register, will they still vote in December if the virus is still around?” he rhetorically quizzed.

“They [Minority] should tell us that if by December the virus is still around, then the election should be cancelled as well so Nana Addo [President] can continue with his governance. But with that they are saying no,” he added.

The majority leader comment comes a day after the House approved EC's C.I. 126.

Parliament approves EC's C.I. 126 report by majority decision

Parliament by a majority decision, 106 – 92 approved the recommendation of the Subsidiary Legislation Committee to adopt its report on the Constitutional Instrument (C.I. 126), which is to give the legal backing to the Electoral Commission’s (EC) plans to compile a new voter’s register.

The C.I. 126, which makes the Ghana Card and the Ghanaian passport the only legal identification documents for registering people in the new biometric voters' register, was first laid before the House on March 16, this year but was withdrawn and re-laid on two occasions after the Subsidiary Legislation Committee detected some defects in the Instrument on those occasions.

Under the C.I. 126, those who do not have the Ghana Card or Ghanaian passport can still register provided they are able to get two already registered voters to vouch for them.

The last time the C.I. was re-laid in Parliament was on March 31, 2020.

The approval in Parliament on Tuesday by majority decision, therefore, allows the C.I. 126 to come into force on Wednesday, June 10, 2020, after 21 sitting days.

This, therefore, gives the Electoral Commission the green light to go ahead and compile the new voters' register by using only the Ghanaian passport or Ghana Card as the documents for citizenship identification.