EC ‘belligerent’ to views of stakeholders on new electoral roll – IMANI

Franklin Cudjoe, the President of IMANI Africa, has postulated that the Electoral Commission (EC) is ‘hostile’ to the views of other stakeholders in its decision to compile a new electoral roll.

He explained that the EC should consider the views of other stakeholders and probably hold a limited voters’ registration exercise so as not to risk the spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) by having a mass registration exercise.

“We are seeing some level of belligerence on part of EC, unfortunately, I have to say that, EC has never made argument the register is bloated, when issue began, all they kept saying is they want to ensure biometric machines are able to verify every voter who is eligible to vote.

“As COVID-19 will be with us for some time, it is prudent and best for EC to conduct limited voter registration using same verification machines or few will be purchased in addition to already existing ones to cure challenge of having mass registrations, if COVID-19 were to be with us to end of year, would we not have mass voting?

“In the instance, we are erring on side of caution in terms of saving public purse, you don’t need mass registration, conduct limited registration with existing equipment in face of challenges, not pressing priority for EC to purchase new biometric verification machines if already existing machines are capable of delivering credible results,” Mr Cudjoe asserted.

He indicated that EC had never made claims register was faulty and bloated but would change register because 0.45 per cent error margin was too much to take, since 2012 error margin had reduced from 30 per cent in 2012 to 5 per cent in 2016 and to 0.45 per cent in 2019 during district level elections.

The Commission has, for the past few months, drummed home need for new roll, describing it as critical for free, fair, credible and transparent elections and current register not fit for purpose.

Despite pressure from some civil society organisations and opposition political parties known as Inter-Party Resistance Against the New Voters’ Register to call off plan, EC subsequently scheduled April 18 as date to go ahead with exercise ahead of December general election but exercise was suspended amid the government’s announcement of measures to contain spread of novel coronavirus (COVID-19). -citinewsroom.com