EC urged to maintain no verification, no vote regulation

Political parties under the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) Ghana’s Political Parties Programme (GPPP) have called on the Electoral Commission (EC) to maintain the no verification, no vote regulation.

The political parties include the National Democratic Congress, New Patriotic Party, People’s National Convention and the Convention People’s Party, as well those with no parliamentary representations.

The political parties made the recommendation, as part of their proposals for electoral reforms, after their representatives attended two workshops held for them by the IEA, to discuss and review Ghana’s electoral system, with a view to proposing reforms in the wake of the problems that emerged after the 2012 general elections.

The parties, as part of their recommendations, agreed that, the no verification, no vote regulation, which was adopted in the 2012 general elections should be maintained and enforced in the 2016 elections.

“This means that, there must be authentication of finger prints before a person is allowed to vote,” the parties recommended.

They however called on the EC to make every effort to improve upon the equipment and technology, in order not to repeat the problem that characterized the 2012 general election with the use of the verification device.

Dr Ransford Gyampo, a Senior Research Fellow at IEA and Coordinator of GPPP, said the discussion by the political parties was focused on the role and power of the EC in the conduct of elections, biometric voter registration, voting and documents of the polls, E-voting, elections security and election petitions, which he said were very constructive.

“While we urge the EC to listen and fully take the proposals on board, we also call on the media, civil society organisations and all stakeholders not to rest on their oars within this inter-election period, but to work and cooperate with the EC to ensure that the proposal is fully implemented to the letter,” he said.