Pressure group, Citizens Awake Forum (CAF), has appealed to the Electoral Commission (EC) to listen to Ghanaians over the alleged bloating of the voters register, for the sake of peace.
“In fact, we have checked, double-checked and cross-checked about the brouhaha surrounding the call for a new voters’ register and indeed, we must say that the call is in the right direction and that it behoves the EC to listen to the recommendations put forward by the opposition parties,” CAF said in a statement signed by its Executive Director, Ernest Kojo Smith, and issued to the media yesterday in Accra.
The statement follows the opposition New Patriotic Party’s (NPP’s) press conference on Tuesday, August 18, 2015 which alleged that over 70,000 Togolese nationals were on the list of Ghana’s voter register.
For instance, the statement recounted that, in the 2012 General Elections, the total number of registered voters for the presidential election differed from that of the parliamentary.
The total number of registered voters that the EC gazetted for the presidential election it said was14,158,890 whilst the parliamentary stood at 13,628,817.
“These are the errors which need to be corrected to restore confidence in our electoral process. Registered voters, whether presidential or parliamentary, must produce the same figure,” it stressed.
The statement noted that in a situation where there was disparity, one would be tempted to conclude that the election results had been schemed to favour a particular candidate or party as was the case in the 2012 general Elections.
According to CAF, the issue of the new voters register was a crucial one, as the progress of the country largely depended on the credibility of the electoral variables.
“As we speak, all the opposition parties have agreed that there are anomalies in the register and have even proposed ways of correcting these anomalies.
Meanwhile, the posture of the ruling party has raised the suspicion of Ghanaians, thinking that the register has been tampered with by the ruling government,” the statement stated.
It contended that anyone in his or her right frame of mind would definitely listen to the calls by many Ghanaians for a new voter’s register considering what the country went through in 2012, stressing, “We can’t have another presidential petition at the Supreme Court again”
To this end, CAF in the statement advised the EC to place the interest of the country above all political and individual considerations.
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