Dr. Edward Nasigre Mahama
The flagbearer of the opposition People’s National Convention (PNC), Dr. Edward Nasigre Mahama, has said the Electoral Commission of Ghana (EC) should be questioned for the reckless expenditure of public funds following its refusal to implement recommendations by a committee it set up to advise it on electoral matters.
The election management body empanelled five persons in 2015 to advise it, following calls by opposition parties, led by the New Patriotic Party (NPP), for a new poll register as they felt the 2012 roll was bloated and not fit for conducting the 2016 presidential and parliamentary elections.
The committee rejected the request for a new electoral roll but suggested the EC undertake a validation exercise to clean the existing register, among other recommendations.
The PNC flagbearer, who is taking a fifth shot at the presidency, is not happy with EC's posture over the validation process.
Speaking with Class News’ Paa Kwesi Parker Wilson on Wednesday, April 6, 2016, he said: “The EC set up a panel, the Justice Crabbe panel, and they made a recommendation. So, why did they set it up if they wouldn’t follow [its recommendation]? Just waste of public funds?
“If their own commission or panel said: ‘Let’s do it this way and they are not doing it that way, then it means that they are wasting public money, and they should be held accountable for that.”
“Because you see, you don’t set up a panel to advise you on how to do things to bring peace and sanity into the nation and they say, ‘Let’s do it this way,’ and you ignore it.”
The New Patriotic Party (NPP) led other opposition parties on a march dubbed ‘Baamu Yada’ in Kumasi on Wednesday 6th April 2016 to pressure the EC on the same matter.
This was meant to force the EC to implement the validation process as Dr. Anthony Nsiah-Asare, a member of the Movement for Change (MFC), told Class News: “By our estimation, there are about 1.5 million who are not to be in the register, comprising minors, dead people, and foreigners.”
Pro-opposition pressure groups Let My Vote Count Alliance (LMVCA) and the Alliance for Accountable Governance (AFAG) also participated in the protest.
Ghana goes to the polls on November 7, 2016, to elect a president and 275 parliamentarians.
