The Electoral Commission of Ghana has announced at the just ended voter registration exercise that the commission would not undertake any mass registration exercise anytime soon.
The new voter register compilation which commenced on June 30, 2020 ended on Thursday August 6.
Addressing a press Conference at the Commission’s “Let the Citizen Know” on Friday, August 6, the Deputy EC Chairperson, Dr. Bossman Asare said the commission was satisfied with the conduct of the exercise which has captured over 16 million Ghanaians adding the EC would not undertake any mass registration exercise in the near future.
According to him, the commission would only conduct limited voter registration exercise onto the newly compiled register. He said the commission has put in robust mechanisms including the de-duplication process to ensure the credibility of the register to avert the need for a future compilation of an entirely new register.
“This commission has said that this is going to be the last time where we are going to compile a mass register like this and even beyond that, the Commission is anticipating that in future register compilation, when we are adding people onto it, everyone will come with an identity document, which is the passport and the Ghana card, so, that’s why we want to do everything possible [to make sure it is clean].”
Justifying its decision to compile a new electoral roll, Dr. Bossman Asare said the commission has been able to remove a potential 3 million ineligible voters. This he maintained would not have been possible without the compilation of the new register.
“Had the Commission maintained the old register and conducted a limited registration exercise in all electoral areas and registration centres, across the country, we would have estimated to conservatively add about 2 million Ghanaians on to the existingregister. This would have given us a total number of almost 19.6 million persons, approximately 20 million, had we maintained the old register and conducted the Limited Registration Exercise as compared to the current figure of 16.63 million, some 3 million difference,” he stated.
He also insisted that the data obtained from the mass registration exercise is credible and reflects the voter population of Ghana.
“According to the Ghana Statistical Service’s estimates, Ghanaians who are at least 18 years are 17,624,686, which is approximately 57% of the estimated population of almost 31million.This means the numbers we are on track to register are well be within the threshold of those who qualify to vote,” he argued.
The commission faced stiff opposition from Civil Society Organization (CSOs) and the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) when it announced the compilation of a new voter register.
The EC had said the register compiled in 2012 was not credible but the CSOs and the NDC disagreed questioning the motive behind the compilation of the new voters’ register. The NDC had taken a number of legal actions aimed at stopping the commission from compiling the new register but the Apex Court of Ghana shot down their actions paving way for the compilation of the new register.
