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If you are above 18 years and of sound mind, you should by now be very interested in activities leading to this year’s Presidential and Parliamentary elections. Political party activities are picking up and very soon, candidates will be in full gear selling their policies.

Your civic responsibility is to carefully scrutinize campaign messages to make an informed choice. Any mistake or failure to track what is trending could result in your disenfranchisement or perhaps the wrong choice of a President and MPs to represent you.

With barely 200 days left to the polls, the Electoral Commission (EC) is yet to compile a final register. This is an issue dear to the heart of political parties. But the NPP, the largest opposition party appears to have more concerns than others.

Per the Electoral Commission’s road map, the limited registration exercise begins from April 28th to May 8, 2016. This will be followed by the voter register exhibition, during which the bloated register is expected to be thoroughly cleaned.

But the NPP, which failed to push the EC to compile an entirely new biometric voter’s register has another option, ‘Validation,’ and this is an exercise it insists is the right way to go.

The party through Let My Vote Count Alliance and another pro- NPP pressure group, Alliance for Accountable Governance has issued threats of violence should the EC fail to adhere. But the VCRAC Crabbe Panel appointed by the EC to review NPP’s petition on the bloated voters register has set the record straight. IT NEVER RECOMMENDED VALIDATION. Chairman Justice VCRAC Crabbe told host of GTV’s flagship current affairs programme Talking Point.

So what really is the Voter Validation NPP is pursuing?  What form does it take, what are the possible risks involved and how different is it from the Voter register exhibition?

What makes these questions even more interesting is that the current album is a biometric register and the features should make it difficult for multiple voting.

According to Experts, Voter Validation is an exercise aimed at cleaning up the voter register. It enables all Ghanaians to validate the inclusion of their names on the voters’ register – to confirm their national identity and residency, and ensure they are eligible to vote on Election Day. Biometric data (fingerprints) will be verified, using the Biometric Verification device (BVD), facial image will be crosschecked, so as personal details (such as home address) and updated if need be.

Like compiling a new register, if you do not show up to be validated, your name will be removed from the list, just like it happened with the 2012 biometric registration exercise. That obviously is a smart way of pushing for a new voter’s register, which was shot down by the EC panel of five and most political parties, political think tanks and observers who made presentations at the two-day EC forum on the voters register. 

Now once successfully validated, the registered voter will receive a new voter’s ID card, rendering the old card defunct. This is necessary to differentiate those validated from those who are not.

That sounds very convincing. But these processes apart from the possible issuance of new ID card are not different from voter register exhibition, which the EC has undertaken before all major elections since 1992.

All political parties are issued copies of the provisional register, they use their agents in the various electoral areas to scrutinize them, complaints are filed, suspects are identified and names collectively expunged or referred to an arbitration committee.

Upon thorough research, it has become clear the pro- NPP Danquah Institute, the party itself and friendly pressure groups know one key thing they are silent about.  

First, by law, no Ghanaian duly registered can be disenfranchised as clearly spelt out in Chapter 42 of the 1992 Constitution. This means, before the so called validation, a law must be drafted and enacted for Validation.

This can be by an amendment to the Public Elections (Registration of Voters) regulations, 2016 (CI 91) or by passing an entirely new law, which will take 21 days to come into force.

If that should happen, eligible voters like you who fail to validate will have his or her name deleted from the register. What this means is that those who are travelled, bed ridden, engaged elsewhere by work will be obliged to return home to report physically at the validation centers. Anything apart from that will mean that person cannot take part in the elections.

That obviously will raise legal issues that has the potential of injunctions which could throw the timetable off gear.

· This obviously is a recipe for chaos especially when majority of those whose names are already captured went through due process. Note that the NPP-led agenda is really not too different from the existing measures to clean the register except the possible deletion of names of those who for genuine reasons won’t be around.

· The NPP claimed over 70,000 names of Togolese were deliberately planted in the current register. It also cites the Supreme Court ruling against the use of NHIS cards. Fact is the Voter Validation if it were approved could not have barred the so called Togolese from verifying if they are in Ghana. Those who have genuinely lost their ID cards, could still check their details and people obviously could go ahead without producing NHIS cards. If a voter does not have a second form of ID, he or she will require two other voters, who have already been successfully verified, to vouch for their identity.

· The Electoral Commission has very limited time. The Institute of Economic Affairs, the Coalition of Domestic Election Observers among others are on its neck over the delays. Voter Validation would need an ammended CI 91. Financing will be a major problem and the result actually won’t be too different from the final product from systems already in place.

· The Danquah Institute which has been propagating the agenda admits time will be needed and would mean postponement of the planned limited registration on April by between 2-5 weeks. That will take us to June.

Five months for preparations at a time the EC’s image has been deliberately discredited by the NPP is a recipe for chaos as further delays will play in the hands of a party which has consistently issued threats of violence if it’s not satisfied with the November polls.

There is no room for such risks. What we must do is to support the Electoral Commission. The good news is that the Commission and the Inter Party Advisory Committee have agreed on the current roadmap.

Let’s sensitize the public especially those who have just turned 18 to fully participate in the limited registration and all other processes. By so doing we are guaranteed many will participate in the elections. God bless Ghana.