According to him, the Commission has taken note that some party officials aided minors and foreigners to register in the ongoing exercise.

Speaking at a press conference on May 13, he said this was illegal and party agents must desist from engaging in such act.

“We wish to use this opportunity to urge parents, especially, to dissuade their children who are less than 18 years from registering as voters.

“Similarly, we beseech the national leadership of the political parties to discourage their executives in the region and the constituency from transporting minors and foreigners to registration centres,” he said.

His comments follow reports that Police in the Western Region arrested two individuals for allegedly  registering five minors in the exercise.

Dr Asare explained that the objective of the commission is to have a credible register for the 2024 elections. Since political parties are main stakeholders in elections, he added that they must ensure that the register is devoid of any such names which might undermine its credibility.

Meanwhile, he called on the police to enforce the law against the individuals arrested, serving as a deterrent to others in the country.

Additionally, the director of electoral services cautioned minors to refrain from registering in the exercise, emphasising that it is against the law and could be considered a criminal offence.

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He said those aspiring to vote in the upcoming December elections must ensure they register.

Addressing a gathering at a rally in Dobro, following a visit to Blue Skies Limited, President Akufo-Addo said his only hope is to see Dr. Bawumia elected President in the December general elections.

“This is our election year, and we have the limited registration has started. Anybody who hasn’t registered and is eligible should go and register. This is because your right to vote is your power.

“Also, when the time is up for the voting, our job is simple. The person I defeated and my work, since I took over, seems not to please him, I cannot hand over power to such a person. He will destroy whatever we have done when he comes,” he stated.

“…I am pleading with you to vote for the person I have worked with for the past seven and half years. I have faith in him and I know that he will come and continue the work I have begun as Dr. Mahamamudu Bawumia” the President added.

The Electoral Commission has started a nationwide limited registration exercise for persons who turned eighteen.

The exercise began today, May 7 and is expected to end on May 20. 

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Data released by the Electoral Commission (EC) says 62.83% of the registered voters since the exercise commenced on September 12 were registered with the guarantor system. 

The data added that 36.76% registered using the Ghana Card with 0.41% using the passport.

This, Dr Omane Bomoah in a Facebook post on Friday, September 22, insisted that without the guarantor system, many eligible voters would have been disenfranchised. 

“63% of all the people registered from day 1 to day 9 registered using the guarantor system. Only 37% registered using a Ghanacard and passport. These revealing statistics show the EC would have disenfranchised many if the guarantor system was not permitted,” be posted. 

The former Communications Minister thus urged those who have not registered yet to do so. 

“I urge you to register to vote if you’re not already registered” he added.

In a scathing response to the recent press conference held by the EC Chair, Agbodza refuted the attempt to use Parliament as justification for what he perceives as an unjust strategy by the Commission to suppress first time voter numbers.

“One of the false, weak, and wishy-washy excuses the EC Chair, Madam Jean Adukwei Mensa, sought to canvass at her press conference to justify the EC’s dogged determination to suppress first-time voters is her claim that the Commission is acting within the constraints of its work-plan and budget as approved by Parliament,” Agbodza stated.

The Minority Chief Whip vehemently challenged the validity of the claims of the EC boss that the Commission did not have a budget to decentralise the registration process to the Electoral area level, asserting that Parliament’s approval of the EC’s budget for 2023 did not entail any reductions.

“Parliament, in considering the Electoral Commission’s budgetary estimates for 2023, its Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) from 2023-2026, and the Electoral Commission’s actual appropriation for 2023, did not take a pesewa out of the Commission’s requests,” he emphasised.

The budget figures presented by Agbodza paint a stark picture. “Indeed, both Appendix 4A (MDA Expenditure Allocation) of the 2023 Budget Statement and the Third Schedule of the Appropriations Act 2022 (Act 1090), as well as the EC’s own Programme-Based Budget Estimates contained in its MTEF, put the EC’s total budget for 2023 at GH₵386,047,606. Out of this figure, the EC budgeted a rounded figure of GH₵56,059,846 for registration of voters in 2023.”

Mr Agbodza stressed that, Parliament approved a generous budget for the Electoral Commission, stating, “It is important to state that the Electoral Commission’s budgetary allocation for 2023 is far more than all the budgetary allocations of the Ministry of Information and its agencies, the National Development Planning Commission, the National Media Commission, the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs, and the Right to Information Commission, put together.”

“There can be no justification on the part of an Electoral Commission that is hell-bent on disenfranchising voters by placing strictures and fetters on the inalienable rights of Ghanaians to register to vote in public elections and referenda, instead of implementing programmes to expand that right as it is enjoined by law to do”, the Adaklu MP stated.

Mr Agbodza had a stern warning to the EC and its Commissioners; “Jean Mensa will not be allowed to use Parliament as a convenient excuse for her lawless conduct, and as representatives of the people, we will soon be demanding accountability from her and the other Commissioners.”

The ongoing voter registration exercise in the EC’s district offices across the country has drawn widespread criticism from political parties and civil society organisations who are of the view that the EC has not justified the reason for limiting the exercise to its district offices.

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“Why is the NDC quick to judge a 3-week-old exercise from the first day it started; let us not do that,” he urged.

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Mr Mercer admits there will be challenges with the process which begun on Monday but contends that does not provide enough grounds for the NDC to run down the success of the exercise.

“This is not the first time we are conducting a limited registration exercise so if it wasn’t inconvenient previously, what has changed now for it to be inconvenient,” he asked on Adom TV’s Badwam Show.

Hon Mercer’s comment follows a statement by the NDC’s Communication Officer, Sammy Gyamfi of a slow and ineffective process on the first day of the registration.

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“The EC refused our advice and went ahead with the district offices registration and now we have reports of slow network and challenges with the online system and the NDC has been vindicated by the slow process because we complained about it,” Mr Gyamfi said on Asempa FM’s Ekosii Sen show on Monday.

Meanwhile, the EC has described the limited voters’ registration exercise which took off on Monday as successful and running smoothly.

Source: Adomonline.com/Gertrude Otchere