General Secretary of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), Johnson Asiedu Nketia has disagreed with the call for an extension of the duration for the voter register exhibition exercise by his counterpart in the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP).
In his view, voter register exhibition by the Electoral Commission (EC) has always been characterized by low turnout and what would help is for the EC to embark on a vigorous publicity drive in the remaining period of the exercise.
He stated on Okay FM’s Ade Akye Abia program: "..generally, that is how it has been anytime the voter register is opened for exhibition. What I recommend is education and publicity drive for the exercise before it ends”.
Johnson Asiedu Nketia, who is also known as General Mosquito made this comments in reaction to a release by Kwabena Adjei Agyapong, the Chief Scribe of the NPP in which he noted; “the New Patriotic Party has noted with deep disquiet and concern, the general low turnout at the on-going voters register exhibition exercise”.
According to him, “an exercise of this magnitude and importance necessarily ought to have been preceeded by wide consultations with political parties and other stakeholders. We believe that the inability or unwillingness of the EC to have properly involved and consulted with all stakeholder accounts for the low levels of public awareness and education about this important exercise”.
“..Reports from exhibition centres across the country also confirm low patronage coupled with several challenges and short comings such as the distortion of particulars of voters, the deletion of some particulars and several other errors. We call on the EC to as a matter of emergency, convene an IPAC meeting to deliberate on these and related matters”.
However, General Mosquito is of the opinion that there has always been low patronage of voter registration exercises and this would not require an extension.
The Electoral Commission (EC) has scheduled the exhibition exercise of the voters register from Friday, October 24 to Thursday, October 30 at all polling stations throughout the country.
The exercise will offer all registered voters the opportunity to check their names and particulars in the voters register as well as make the necessary corrections should there be a need.
It will also help the EC clean the register by taking off names of unqualified people, such as minors and non-citizens, from the register; and also remove the names of dead people.
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