Speaker of Parliament, Professor Mike Oquaye has called for an establishment of a West African Electoral Commission to check electoral conflicts and discrepancies that characterize elections in Africa.
Delivering a speech on Africa's governance system under the theme “Will a new concept of governance accelerate the prosperity agenda?” Prof. Mike Oquaye noted that having this electoral commission will ensure "there is one credible international register" which will resolve any bone of contention in Africa's electoral body.
“If we have a West African Electoral Commission, the [electoral] register which becomes a bone of contention can become international [because] you cannot be on the Cote d’Ivoire register, on the Ghana register and the Togo register at the same time because, there is one credible international register", he said.
To him, Africa's democracy "may not be sustainable until we have an answer to this.”
“If we had a powerful West African Electoral Commission they become themselves a regulatory body so that no person, [president] can do whatever he or she likes in his or her backyard", he added.
Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana
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What happens in the case of dual citizens? What happens if the names are in multiple registers?
This is a of very good suggestion from the speaker of parliament and must be supported by all to forestall peace and stability in the sub-region and in Africa as a whole.Many a times we have people of different nationalities meddling in the elections of others just because they are at the borders and in some cases can speak other languages.