Voters’ Register: You Can’t Stampede Us – EC Boss

The Electoral Commission of Ghana has served notice to political parties that it will not budge to incessant demands to go into the 2016 elections with a new voters’ register.

The New Patriotic Party (NPP) is unsatisfied by the report of a five-member panel of eminent persons who looked at the merit and demerit of a new electoral roll. The Justice VCRAC Crabbe body rejected the call for a new register.

The Danquah-Busia-Dombo tradition and its allies have threatened legal action against the election regulatory body while the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) has accepted the committee’s report.

Speaking to the media in Accra, the chairperson of the EC Charlotte Osei said her outfit will always do “what is right and legal” in the interest of Ghana.

“An electoral management body should never be stampeded into taking a decision by political parties and that’s why the constitution grants you that independence,” Mrs Osei stated.

She stressed: “People may try to stampede and that’s why you have to stand your grounds and do what you know is right… There is inclusiveness in the sense that you need to listen to the views of all the stakeholders and examine their views and take it on board when you can. But you must always do what is right and what is legal.”

Mrs Osei dispelled claims by the NPP that the EC failed to contact the Togolese electoral body over claims that about 70, 000 nationals of the French-speaking nation have their names and pictures in Ghana’s electoral roll.

She said the main opposition party can always come to her office to verify.

“You can come to our office and we’ll give you copies of our letters to the Togolese electoral commission and we can also show you copies of their response on their letterhead and that should settle that matter,” Mrs Osei opined.

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