Ensuring the security and integrity of the election process is critical to maintaining our democratic values, security and peace.
The EC should guarantee that every eligible individual vote is protected and that no person’s vote is negated by fraud.
The current voters register is a sham.
It is bloated with ghost names and fraught with persons not eligible to vote. Check your Polling Station voters register and you will be alarmed by the number of under age “voters” in the register. Other categories of unqualified voters abound in the register.
This illegality must be tackled before the 2016 elections.
As long as elections put people into positions where they make decisions on our behalf as a government and exercises power and authority over us, it is most appropriate for the process to “hire” these individuals to be free, fair, transparent and credible.The 2012 elections were marred with massive malpratices and irregularities. We spent eight months in the Supreme for adjudication on the matter.
The disputed and litigated election results demonstrates the risk of voter fraud in future.This could affect the outcome of a close election as in the case of the 2012 elections. Many NDC activists deny that voter fraud occured in 2012 and argue for the status quo to be used for the 2016 elections. To them, there is no need for any measure to protect the integrity of our election process. The current register is definitely to their benefit.The NPP must push harder is this crusade. It is a reasonable demand!
The current voters register cannot inspire public confidence. No safeguards exist to deter or detect fraud, confirm the true identity of voters and “foolproof” that those on the register are eligible to vote.The right to vote in a free and fair election is the most basic civil right, one on which many of the other rights of the Ghanaian people depend.The EC can and should guarantee that every eligible individual is able to vote.They must also ensure that every uneligible “voter” is stopped from voting and that no one’s vote is “stolen” by fraud. This can only be achieved if the EC compiles a NEW VOTERS register for the elections 2016.
Ghanaians must demand for it. All the Opposition Parties and CSOs must put pressure on the government and the Electoral Commission to make the compilation of a new voters register a priority.
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By: Musah Superior