Dear Mrs. Jean Mensa,
In the interest of transparency and good governance, kindly make public or share with the political parties the reports from your consultants that recommended to you that the EC must produce a new register. So far every claim about the existing register being unfit for purpose is only coming from the mouth of your good self and some of your officials. We are not obligated to trust your word.
Much of the controversy surrounding your decision to procure and produce new voters' register can be resolved if we the citizens are respected enough and given the said report to evaluate ourselves. Don't we deserve to be given an opportunity to appreciate the enormity of the problems you seek to address? Carry the nation along, don't dictate to the nation.
In releasing the report, please ensure that we are equally informed about the processes used to produce the consultants as well as the cost or amounts paid to them. We will also be interested in knowing more about the methods the consultants used, and whether their report has been reviewed by other experts in the field for validation purposes. It will be helpful if you will also include a note on the extent of your consultation and deliberation with the political parties on the issue as has always been the practice.
Given that the existing register has been used recently for three major elections since 2016, I am sure you will understand why citizens will also be interested in knowing when you first had the recommendations to produce a new voters' register. This is because your claim of the current register being obsolete has implications for the legitimacy of the president, members of parliament, the recently elected Assembly members across the country, and of course for the newly created regions.
I have followed your work at Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) where you persistently demanded accountability and transparency from governments and state institutions. To that extent, this request is following in the line of your quest for transparency except that this time round you are the one to honour to call.
I hope you will not leave the nation with the impression that your work at IEA was more about politics of convenience rather promoting principled positions. Already there is a sense emanating from your utterances and posturing which displays intolerance, condescending, and dismissiveness in contrast to the fine principles you espoused at IEA. I will appreciate a comment on whether you still believe in Jean Mensa's IEA.
A recent US State Department Report (2018) suggests that you and your colleagues were appointed to the EC to guarantee an Akuffo Addo second term. I don't know what you make of this claim but it speaks volumes about your credibility and trustworthiness. Unfortunately, your utterances and the general posturing of the EC including decisions around transfer and reassignment of existing staff in your outfit appear to give credence the claim. I am worried for your legacy following the remarkable performance of your two predecessors.
Let me end in the firm conviction that you will have the courage to prove the septics wrong by submitting the consultants' reports to the public, and be opened and accommodating enough to embrace the debates it will generate. Let's get to the bottom of all the issues in the interest of transparency.
Source: Dr. Kpessa-Whyte
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With the current ECOWAS register and the computer system, NDC can still hack the system through STL. Once a new register is compiled with attendant computer system to manage the elections, that will be the end of the party. NDC should remember that it has been the resolve of NPP to compile a new and credible register. What NDC should do is to be vigilant at polling stations till results are declared, just as NPP did in 2016 elections.
Somebody should tell this m0ron that the EC owes them no such explanation. When Charlotte Osei embarked on her wasteful and use*less change of logo for no reason and spoke arrogantly to those in opposition at the time, these 1diots, including this particular "white" called Kpessa defended her like worker bees defending their queen. Today, they're screaming like babies. Donkeys!!!!!!!
To quote Max: "After all, both NPP and NDC have won and lost elections with this current register so why should it be otherwise when it is improved this time by the EC" What is it that NDC Fears about a new voter register that needs upgrading technologically that Ghanaians are not being told? To quote John Mahama in 2015: "Let them demonstrate but allow the EC to do its work" in response to the "Let My Votes Count" demonstrations in 2015. Can JM say the same to his supporters in 2020? The EC will definitely do its work and compile a new voter register in exercise of its constitutional obligations to all Ghanaian and not NDC or NPP supports. NDC is indeed preparing the grounds to reject the 2020 election outcome because they know what is ahead of them. They have no message for 2020
The comments so far till that of FRACOIS show a high-level decorum and genuine intellectual contribution to the issue. It is also instructive to note the absence of the NDC when it comes to honest intellectual discourse.
Do we have to entertain these noisy making and good for nothing NDC gangs. They are a nuisance to right thinking Ghanaians and i think not well brought up to work on their own. Always interested in power to feed themselves through 11dubious means and corrupt practices. Majority of these noisy gangs come from the north where poverty is daily on the increase. For more than 27 years in power very little has been in the north where these lousy nincompoops come from and form majority in ndc. so sad that their investments are all in the south but use those in the north to get power and come to Accra.
If EC says it took advice from it's IT experts / consultants, the advice must not necessarily have to be contained in a so-called report. Unless the EC specifically mentioned a report. Sometimes decisions are taken through a brainstorming session without necessarily writing a report. It could be an omission but if you were EC and initially thought you were not taking a report to any external entity, you probably may not cover such a brainstorming session with a report. But to the NDC, I've never seen such a show of duplicity, the cover of real intentions, and the lack of mental rigour in analyzing issues. Building a new register shouldn't have caused this much rancor if the NDC were genuine. Always on the wrong side of history when something good has to be done for this country. Wrong party indeed.
Yesterday was the End Of Life for Windows 7. Even though Windows 7 still works, I moved on to avoid the vulnerability of an supported Operating System. Sometimes I wonder why people can be so intellectually dishonest. The current register must go!
Has EC discretional powers to act as it sees fit in such a way as to avoid social embarrassment or distress? If the answer is yes, then it is intellectually very important and intelligent for the EC to withhold making the report, upon which the discretion is based, public. Much so do I think, it is responsible on the part of the EC to say the Voters' Register in its present form is overstretched, even though she believes it is credible. You see, sometimes I'm strongly inclined to believe that NDC lacks competence when certain academics make certain shocking comments on an issue. I think we should applaud Mrs. Jean Mensa and the EC's stance of technically updating the Register, though it is credible. Then, the register has given us respected and able Presidents with all its faults. Hence, compiling a new one with modern, updated technics and software that able Ghanaians to take the whole charge doesn't take away its credibility. After all, both NPP and NDC have won and lost elections with the register and why should it be otherwise when it is improved this time by the NPP-Administration elected EC.