The Electoral
Commission (EC) has asked Parliament to approve GH¢444,846,663 for the
compilation of a new voters’ register as part of its activities for the year
2020, to compile a new register for the general election.
In its budget allocated GH¢287,842,511 for the
conduct of elections, GH¢27million has
also been requested for voter and electoral education and GH¢1.2million for
demarcation of electoral boundaries.
The Commission stated that its current system is
outdated and weak hence the request to compile a new voters’ register before
the 2020 general election.
Dr Serebour Quaicoe, the Director of Electoral
Services at the EC, said the Commission was currently facing numerous challenges
with the biometric verification system which need to be updated.
“A lot of people’s fingers are failing to be
recognised with the new one that we want to introduce, we will add facial
recognition, if the fingers fail we can use the face to verify,” he explained.
This has raised eyebrows and the National
Democratic Congress (NDC) has kicked against the new register and they believe the Commission was purposefully
attempting to disenfranchise some people with the new register.
“In my opinion, there is no such need for a new
voters’ register, why do we require a new register? Our practice has been, we
replace the new register every decade,” the party noted.
But Dr Serebour warned that “with manual
verification on the high, the essence of biometric is being defeated since it
was introduced to curb multiple registrations, voting and impersonation, should
issues be left as it is, the system may fail at some point, if we don’t take
care, it will get to a point and the system will crash in our faces.”
Commenting on the issue, Dr Oduro Osae, Dean of
Studies and Research at the Institute of Local Government Studies, realised the
move by the EC to promote transparency, credibility and fairness in the
electoral processes and insisted that “it is key to our growth of democracy,
development and to enable the citizenry have confidence in the system which is
critical for their participation in governance, if it will give us the
confidence and the openness we need, then I am for it.” -myjoyonline.com
