The Electoral Commission (EC) has appealed to former President John Dramani Mahama to bring the National Democratic Congress (NDC) to the discussion table to help address the discrepancies in the provisional voters register that the party say they have identified.
Addressing a press conference in Accra on Thursday, 12th September, 2024, Deputy Chairman, Operations, Mr. Samuel Tettey, appealed directly to the former President: “The EC believes that the best way to ascertain the credibility and integrity of the 2024 Voters Register is the discussion table, not on the streets. Taking to the streets will not ensure a credible register.
It will only cause tensions and suspicions which are unwarranted. “We call on the former President, His Excellency John Mahama, an eminent and respected statesman of the Republic, to encourage and bring his party to the table as that is the best place to address issues and ascertain the truth regarding the Voters Register.
We are confident that the former President will heed to our calls and do everything in his power to bring his party to the discussion table. On our part, we assure the NDC of a transparent process that would demonstrate to them that all their concerns have been resolved.” The call on President Mahama to bring the NDC to the discussion table has become important as, according to the Commission, the NDC has failed to provide the EC with copies of evidence of the discrepancies in the Provisional Voters Register that the NDC say they discovered during the Exhibition Exercise.
According to the EC, despite promising to share the evidence with them following their meeting on Friday, 6th September, 2024, several calls and requests to the NDC by the EC to obtain a copy of the discrepancies have yielded no results. This was disclosed by the Deputy Chairman, Operations, Mr. Samuel Tettey, at a press conference in Accra on Thursday, 12th September, 2024.
The Public would recall that the NDC presented five issues or discrepancies to the EC during the 6th September meeting after which the NDC told the Public that the EC had rejected their call for a forensic audit into the register.
The NDC subsequently announced a nationwide demonstration scheduled for the 17th of September as a result of what they said was the EC’s refusal to grant their request for the forensic audit. But speaking at the press conference on Thursday, the Mr. Samuel Tettey said: “The EC requested a copy of the discrepancies identified by the NDC at the meeting. This was not given to the Commission. Unfortunately, several calls and requests to the NDC to obtain a copy of the discrepancies have yielded no results.” The EC also dismissed allegations made by the NDC that the Commission had added 50,000 ghost names to the register.
Responding to that allegation, Mr. Samuel Tettey said: “We have also noted comments from the NDC alluding to ghost names in the register. We are aware that there may be dead persons on the register because several persons die each year. One of the key purposes of the Exhibition Exercise is to allow relatives of the dead to initiate the process of expunging their names from the Register. “The NDC indicated at the meeting that it had identified some 50,000 persons who were dead on the Register.
The Commission once again requested the details of the 50,000 dead persons and assured the NDC that it would work with the District Assembly and Birth and Death Registry to expunge the names from the Register. As with the data on the discrepancies identified by the NDC, we are yet to receive the list of the dead.” The EC assured the Public of its commitment to providing a robust and credible register for the elections: “The Commission is fully committed to providing the country and all Political Parties with a robust and credible Voters Register that will guarantee free, fair, transparent and credible General Election in December 2024.”
Source: www.ghanaweb.com
