The New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) evidence to back its claims that the current voters register is bloated has been described as flawed and problematic.
[contextly_sidebar id=”Y5XjzmwZJFXmoa0fj3qiOqV7JNdUJh90″]According to the General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Asiedu Nketia, the “NPP’s claim that Ghana’s voter population of 14 million is indicative of a bloated register on account of national population census figures of 25 million in 2010 in comparison to other countries is flawed on several grounds.”
He further questioned the “NPP’s use of the 2010 census data to cast doubts on the register as compiled in 2012”, describing it as “problematic.”
Addressing a gathering at Alisa Hotel in Accra a few weeks ago, the NPP’s Vice Presidential Candidate, Dr Mahamadu Bawumia said the NPP has strong evidence that show that the existing voters’ register is flawed.
“The evidence that we have is damning and shows that Ghana’s voters register has been compromised,” Dr Bawumia said .
According to him, “what is more troubling is the fact that most of the pictures on the register were scanned unto the cards. These pictures do not represent real registers. It is not a document we can rely on for free, fair elections.”
But Asiedu Nketia believes the evidence can only be used and sustained “when it is assumed that Ghana’s population has been static since the last census or there was no upward movement in ages of those captured.”
Problem not defined
Nketia also indicated that the problem regarding the voters register had not been clearly been defined as far as the NDC is concerned.
“As far as we in the NDC are concerned, we have not defined any problem yet because we keep shifting from one position to the other and then to the other and so we don’t agree on the problem that we are trying to solve.
He therefore emphasized the need for the problem to be clearly indentified in order to “assess proposed solutions and determine whether those solutions will address the problems that have been identified.”
“If we proceed to just engage in a change and that change is going to have a neutral effect on the statusquo then we have engaged in a useless exercise. On the other hand if we are proposing a change that is not going to help maintain the status quo but is going to be injurious to the status quo then in our view that change should not be contemplated at all,” he added.
Asiedu Nketia made these submissions at the Electoral Commission’s (EC) forum on the need for a new voters’ register.
Various political parties have already started making their submissions on the subject.
The Chairperson of the EC has given the assurance that her outfit will take a decision that will be in the best interest of the party.
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By: Marian Efe Ansah/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @EfeAnsah