The General Secretary of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), John Boadu, says the new Voter’s Register is a necessity for Ghana as he believes it is the only way to ensure Ghana has a credible 2020 general election.
Meanwhile, it is the sole duty and responsibility of the Electoral Commission of Ghana to regulate and control election processes in the country. The Electoral Commission (EC) has shelved plans of compiling a new Voters’ Register due to the novel coronavirus.
Mr. Boadu, however, believes that if the pandemic slows down, the Electoral Commission (EC) should be able to devise a means of conducting this exercise by the end of May.
“There is no way we won’t have a new Voters’ Register, by end of May if the burden comes down then the EC can devise ways of ensuring they do what they are mandated to do in a way that will not put the lives of people at risk”
The EC initially scheduled April 18, 2020, for the compilation of the new voters’ register ahead of the December 2020 elections but following the rapid spread of the novel coronavirus in the country it was postponed and a new date has not been announced.
They have on several occasions explained that Ghana needs a new Voters’ Register because it wants to ensure that the register that is used on the election day is more credible and efficient than the existing one hence the need for a new Biometric Voter Management System (BVMS).
To many Ghanaians, the lifting of the lockdown ban was backed politically as the ruling party is yet to do primaries to elect a presidential candidate and parliamentary candite and to finally force EC to compile new voters register.
This one way or the other seems to be clearly true as the general secretary of the ruling party made this clear to the general public.