Private legal practitioner and member of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Nii Kpakpo Samoa Addo has asked President Nana Akufo-Addo to resign if he thinks the current voters’ register is not credible.
“The fact that you back a decision of a particular institution means [you are] gloating. Those are the things they do that reinforce our fear and our position that they are in bed with the Electoral Commission (EC) because if you are a party and you say that you are for a new register, leave the EC who is an independent body to do its work.”
“You are in government. You back the position of the EC and you deliberately keep running it in our faces that the EC needs a new register because the old register has issues and yet that was the register that elected you as President. We might as well de-legitimize the President. If the President believes consistently that the old register was that bad, then he should resign and say that on the principle that because the old register was bad and that the register was unfit for purpose, I was declared the president on that register so I don’t want to be president again. I need a new register,” he said.
The private legal practitioner made the call on Citi TV‘s weekend current affairs programme, The Big Issue on Saturday, June 27, 2020.
The Electoral Commission is set to compile new voters’ register for the upcoming 2020 presidential and parliamentary elections.
According to the Commission, the current register has challenges for which it cannot be used for the upcoming polls. The decision has taken political sides.
Whilst the New Patriotic Party (NPP), the governing party is in support of saying the EC’s reasons for the compilation makes sense, the largest opposition party, National Democratic Congress (NDC) has challenged it from IPAC to the Supreme Court to direct the EC to stop.
The NDC argues that a new register is unnecessary and is a waste of the taxpayers’ money.
But the Supreme Court on Thursday, June 25, 2020, cleared the Electoral Commission to go ahead and compile a new voters’ register
EC’s decision to compile new register ‘makes a lot of sense’ – Akufo-Addo
President Nana Akufo-Addo has backed the Electoral Commission’s plan to compile a new voters’ register ahead of the 2020 general elections.
According to the President, the decision makes a lot of sense.
“We are getting ourselves ready for December 7. The Electoral Commission is going to compile a new register. It appears there is now an eight-year cycle for the EC to compile a register. They did so in 2012 and 2004. So with these last three including this one are all in the eight-year cycle. I think it makes a lot of sense. The national census itself is done on a ten-year basis.”
“So it makes sense that we keep up the EC to admit new people, take out all those who have died, etc. Their intention is to begin in April. We want everybody in Ghana who can vote to register. It’s important that we all exercise our civic duty to go and vote in December and choose the government that we want,” he noted.