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Former Chief Director of the Electoral Commission (EC) of Ghana, Kwame Damoah Agyemang has stated that the law which enforces de-duplication exercise to overhaul the voters’ register from multiple registration is not fully implemented by the Electoral Commission.

According to him, the de-duplication exercise without prosecuting the offenders as stated in the law makes the exercise incomplete since there is no punishment except that their names are only deleted.

Explaining on Okay FM’s 'Ade Akye Abia' Morning Show on how to deter Ghanaians from registering more than once, Mr. Damoah Agyemang urged the Electoral Commission not to throw away the deterrent effective multiple registration law enshrined in the constitution.

“With the de-duplication exercise, the law says we should prosecute the offenders who have registered more than once in court and so if you sit in your office to delete people’s names from the register without prosecution to give them fair hearing, it is not the position of the law. Election is being done by law and we must adhere to the law,” he hinted.

He again stressed that “de-duplication without prosecution also encourages people to register more than once since there is no punishment except that their names will be deleted. We have not seen anybody hauled before the court for registering more than once.”

Addressing the problem of minors and aliens on Ghana’s voters’ register, Mr. Damoah blamed it on the political parties as they always lead the crusade to lure minors and aliens to flood the register, thus, the solution to clean the register starts from the political parties as they must stop encouraging the minors and aliens from registering.

He posited that it will be difficult to clear minors and aliens from the register if people deliberately fail to testify, making the minors and alien issues unresolved, adding however that there is no law that enforces people eligible to vote to register as done elsewhere in Europe.