Voter roll: 'Old, heaven-seeking eminent persons can't dictate to EC' – Akpaloo

The 13-political party coalition backing the Electoral Commission’s decision to compile a new register of voters ahead of the 2020 elections, has rubbished the interparty dialogue being held today, Thursday, January 30, 2020 at the instance of the EC’s Eminent Advisory Committee following emerging concerns raised by the biggest opposition party, the NDC and some smaller ones as well as 18 CSOs.

The meeting also comes in the wake of a decision by the Inter-party Resistance Against New Voters Register (IPRAN) to besiege the headquarters of the EC on Tuesday, February 4, 2020, in a bid to mount pressure on the election management body to desist from conducting the exercise.

Speaking to Class91.3FM’s Blessed Sogah on ‘State of the Nation’ ahead of the meeting, the Convener of the 13-party coalition, Mr Kofi Akpaloo, who is the leader of the Liberal Party of Ghana (LPG) said the Eminent Advisory Committee cannot in any way dictate to the independent EC.

“These eminent people that we are talking about, they are old men; they are waiting to go to heaven you see; so, they don’t want to lead this country into anything bad, so, that’s why they want to engage these NDC people to make them feel good".

“That’s all because these eminent people can’t decide for the EC, they can’t; they don’t have that mandate, they don’t have that authority to decide for the EC; do they have? They don’t. But to get a new register, we’ll move this nation forward”, Mr Akpaloo said.

Mr Akpaloo also added that IPRAN is on the minority side of the debate with just three-and-a-half political parties supporting its stance.