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A former Deputy Information Minister, Felix Kwakye Ofosu, has questioned the prudence in the Electoral Commission’s decision to compile a new voters register for the 2024 general election.
According to him, the move by the electoral management body is a blight on its leadership.
“What kind of nonsensical leadership is this?”, Mr Kwakye Ofosu quizzed.
In a Facebook post on Tuesday, he stated that the EC plans to generate a new register with the Ghana Card as the only source of identification, which he believes amounts to a waste of resources.
He also added that the move by the EC is geared toward rigging the elections for the incumbent New Patriotic Party (NPP).
“There must be something really amiss with Jean Mensah and her colleagues in the leadership of the Electoral Commission.
“After wasting $ 80 million on a totally needless new register for the 2020 elections on the whim of President Akufo-Addo and his NPP, they want to spend another fortune to compile a new register for the 2024 elections with the Ghana card as the only source of identification
“The object, of course, is to manipulate that register to save the blushes of this hopeless government which is destined to be thrown out by the electorate in 2024” he wrote.
The comments by the former Deputy Information Minister in the erstwhile Mahama administration was in reaction to a proposal by the Electoral Commission to do away with the 2020 voters register.
At the time the 2020 register was generated, the National Identification Authority (NIA) was also issuing Ghana Cards to citizens.
As a result, the Electoral Commission was unable to use the Ghana Card as the only source data for compiling the 2020 voters election.
But the Commission has however stated that unlike 2020, the 2024 voters register will only admit citizens who possess the Ghana Card.
The Commission believes that this will help generate a credible register that captures the exclusive details of only Ghanaians.
This proposal has however been met with stiff opposition by a section of the populace, including the Minority in Parliament.
The dissenters of the proposal have argued that up till now, a lot of Ghanaians have not been able to acquire their Ghana Cards, even though some have duly registered for the Card.
Mr Kwakye Ofosu’s comments therefore reflects the sentiments of those who believe that the EC should not compile a new register using only the Ghana Card.
Meanwhile, the Minority leader in Parliament, Haruna Iddrisu has also decried the development, and accused the EC Chairperson, Madam Jean Mensah, of seeking to distabilise the country and disenfranchise Ghanaians.
Speaking at a press conference in Parliament on Tuesday, he called on the EC to abandon its plans in order to safeguard the country’s democracy.
Mr Haruna Iddrisu also stressed that his outfit will resist any move by the EC to create any inconveniences for voters in the 2024 polls.
He added that, Jean Mensah and her crew committed an illegality when they failed to conduct a limited voters registration exercise in 2021 and this year respectively.
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