LET MY VOTE COUNT ENDORSES CALL BY NPP FOR A NEW VOTERS REGISTER

The Let My Vote Count Alliance wholly endorses the latest call by the New Patriotic Party on the Electoral Commission for the compilation of a new voters’ register towards the 2016 elections. There couldn’t have been any more important call to make now with less than 16 months to the next polls. The alliance is particularly excited at the gamut of revelations that ensued at the NPP press conference addressed by its flagbearer, Nana Akufo-Addo and his running mate, Dr. Mahamadu Bawumia. It is a vindication of all that we’ve been saying about the bloating of our electoral register. It is no wonder a CDD report and the confessions of the EC itself attest to the dwindling confidence of Ghanaians in the electoral commission and our electoral processes.

How can Ghanaians have trust in an electoral process riddled with so many statistical anomalies as the 2012 register? That within a matter of four years or two elections, several constituencies have quantum leaps of registered voters by as high as 130%. Some constituencies have registered voters representing 188% of the district’s population as given by the 2010 CENSUS. No scientific reason can ever support such.

With a simple comparison of the voters’ register of some neighboring countries to ours in Ghana, we are beginning to see how serious the matter of our ‘polluted’ register is. The cross boarder registrations of Togolese in the Ghanaian register which automatically qualified such foreigners to vote in Ghanaian elections in 2012 is not a myth. It is untenable that foreigners be allowed to choose for Ghanaians who their leaders should be. The Ghanaian election is not an ECOWAS election and so its voting is a preserve exclusively reserved for Ghanaian citizens! Thankfully, these revelations should put to rest all the counter arguments suggesting an audit of the register would suffice. These infractions could never have been resolved by any kind of auditing. Only a well policed fresh register can.

With the announcement that the voters register from Burkina Faso, Cote d’ivoire and other ECOWAS countries are also being scrutinized and compared to ours by the NPP team, we expect more of such foreigners to be detected. It is a revelation we believe requires the maximum cooperation of the ECOWAS member countries to address.

We therefore call on and support every move by the NPP and indeed well-meaning members of the civil society to engage other civil societies, political parties and governments across our boarders in ensuring that foreigners are not allowed to register and vote in elections aside the ones organized in their respective countries of origin or citizenship.

Let My Vote Count is glad that many more stakeholders from civil society, political parties and the general public are beginning to respond positively and actively participate in the ‘all important discourse’ on the need for a new voters’ register for the country. A new register is therefore a necessity if Ghanaians are to regain their lost confidence in the electoral processes.

We are further excited though at the new open minded attitude of the EC towards the compilation of a new voters’ register especially in recent times after the appointment of Madam Charlotte Osei as its Commissioner and hope it’s not a nine days’ wonder.

And like we have continued to say, nothing is worth risking the peace, stability and growth of this country. Let us be bold to stand up to what is true, just and right. We are following with interest all the developments that ensued from the NPP press conference. We call on all fair-minded Ghanaians to make their voices not only heard but count as well in ensuring the right thing is done. Our Vote Must Count. The integrity of our elections begins with a credible register.


David Asante

026 822 0220

(Convener)