The Electoral
Commission (EC) has stated its decision to compile a new voters’ register for
Ghana’s presidential and parliamentary elections in December is final, despite
strong resistance against the last-minute move.
According to the EC, the scheduled engagement
with the 21-member Eminent Advisory Committee and the political parties on
Thursday would not be to seek consensus on whether or not to go ahead with the
completion of a new voters’ register.
“You cannot get consensus anywhere; it can never
happen and it will never happen.
If we want to
get consensus before we act, then we will never act,” Director of Electoral
Services at the EC, Dr Serebour Quaicoe, said on Saturday.
The January 30 meeting, he explained, has been
arranged for the EC to inform the stakeholders of its programmes concerning the
new voters’ register, and solicit views on how best it can be implemented.
“We have our programme; we will explain to them
and then we move on with the programme,” he stated, adding “there is no doubt
about us doing the registration”.
Two mammoth rallies in Tamale and Kumasi against
move to have a new voters’ register caused the EC’s 21-member Eminent Advisory
Committee, chaired by Justice Emile Short, to engage the alliance of political
parties and stakeholders against the decision for a consensus to be reached.
The dissenting political parties, who formed the
Inter-Party Resistance Against a New Voters’ Register (IPRNA) consequently
suspended further protests based on what it said was “good faith” shown by the
EC to listen to them.
News that the EC has planned to go ahead with
the registration from April 18 has made the group to announce on Friday that it
will resume further protest in the coming days.
But the EC issued a statement moments later on
Friday, to announce its Eminent Advisory Committee will meet with members of
the Commission and representatives of political parties to “engage” them on the
plan to compile a voters’ register.
-TV3
Mrs. Jean Mensa, EC Chairperson
