Four parties worried about registration

Four political parties have expressed reservations about the just-ended voter registration exercise and called on the EC to ensure that the challenges that characterised the exercise do not occur during the December polls.
They further called on the EC to expedite action on the compilation of the full register to allow for enough time to clean it and also put in place effective measures to prevent the reoccurrence of such challenges in December.
Speaking at different times to the Daily Graphic yesterday, the National Democratic Congress (NDC), the People’s National Convention (PNC), the Convention People’s Party (CPP) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) said these measures would go a long way to ensure free, transparent and credible elections.
The EC opened the voters register for the supplementary registration of eligible voters from Thursday, July 31, to Sunday, August 10, 2008 but had to extend it for two more days due to long queues and shortages of registration materials at certain centres.
The exercise was to allow those who have turned 18 since the last registration, as well as anybody who is over 18 but has never registered, to register. During the exercise, the two main political parties — NDC and NPP — traded accusations and counter-accusations and accused the EC of improper preparations and inadequate logistics.
Even on the final day, the long winding queues that were seen had deepened at some centres.
Presenting their views, the National Organiser of the NDC, Mr Samuel Ofosu Ampofo, described the exercise as “chaotic and unsuccessful” from the onset till the last day including the last two extra days and added that all these were due to the violence, shortages of registration materials, inadequate time and information and the bias of the security agencies.
He said although the political parties foresaw the danger in using 2500 workstations for 5000 registration centres and raised the issue at the Inter Party Advisory Committee (IPAC), the EC defended its stand and went ahead, culminating in all these problems.
He also expressed doubt as to whether the EC even had the 2500 stations, because information from Tema and other areas indicated that the EC used the old Polaroid cameras that were not compatible with the new registration exercise.
Mr Ofosu Ampofo said considering the problem encountered during the exercise, the EC must allow for enough time during the exhibition for proper cleaning of the register to make it credible as part of the process to guarantee peaceful, trustworthy and acceptable elections.
Alhaji Ahmed Ramadan, the National Chairman of the PNC, described the exercise as the “most disappointing and lousy in the political history of the country” and urged the EC not to replicate the problems in the December polls.
He said the EC’s bad planning drew the exercise close to the election and this automatically aroused some euphoria among the political parties and individuals, which made both qualified and unqualified people, as well as those who have lost their identity cards, to register, resulting in the long queues.
He called on Ghanaians, especially the EC, to take a cue from the violence and problems that nearly marred the exercise and not to allow it to reflect in the December polls.
Alhaji Ramadan did not understood why the EC could not organise a clean and smooth registration exercise after their claim that they had had enough resources from the state.
Mr Lord Commey, the National Organiser of the NPP, who said the party was compiling its report from the various registration centres to make a general pronouncement at the IPAC meeting, said “the EC could have done better”.
He said because election was a process and not an event, the main stakeholders of it must endeavour to safeguard its credibility to sustain the continuous peace of the nation, especially by assisting the EC to tidy up the register and ensure that the December polls did not run into similar problems.
The Campaign Strategist of the CPP, Mr David Ampofo, said the exercise was a bit problematic and that political parties and the EC must learn lessons from it in other to avoid such mishaps happening again in any electoral exercise.
He said the long queues and lack of logistics that made a lot of young people unable to register had affected the party’s drive at attracting the youth but this should also alert the authorities to take the birth and death, as well as national identification registration serious.
These, he said, would make voter registration more effective and eliminate most of the problems that came up during the exercise, especially double registration and registration of minors.
Mr Ampofo said the exercise should teach Ghanaian authorities a great lesson take a holistic approach in strengthening and resourcing the EC and other similar state bodies.