THE Electoral Commission (EC) has urged all those who engaged in one electoral malpractice or another during the recent limited registration exercise to use the photo-taking activity which ends today to purge themselves.
It said the photo-taking exercise should provide an opportunity for those who had engaged in multiple registration, foreigners and minors who were registered but could not have their photographs taken for identity cards to be issued to them to avoid having their photographs taken so that their names would not be captured in the national register.
That, the EC believed, would help reduce the number of people who bloated the register during the limited registration exercise, as well as save the culprits the embarrassment of being pointed out, especially the minors.
In an interview with the Daily Graphic, a Principal Public Relations Officer at the EC, Mrs Sylvia Annor, said the responsibility of cleaning the register lay on the shoulders of all Ghanaians, especially the political parties who were the primary users of the register.
She also gave the assurance that the EC would not take any action against those who voluntarily came forward to cancel their names from the register as minors, foreigners or double registrants.
She said that could be done from now till the exhibition period which would start from October 5 to 11 at all polling stations.
With the photo-taking exercise, she said the commission had secured enough logistics to cover all those who could not have their photographs taken during the limited registration.
When the Daily Graphic visited the IBU Polling Station at New Mamprobi in Accra, about 50 young people were waiting patiently in the queue to have their photographs taken.
The exercise was generally peaceful and the officials in charge of the photo-taking and identity card issuance expressed the hope that all those who registered would receive their identity cards.
One of the people in the queue, Michael Tetteh, said although the queue was a bit long, he would have his identify card issued to him because of the smooth manner in which the EC officials were undertaking the exercise.
At the Accra Technical Training Centre, about 50 people had had their photographs taken as of 11.15 a.m., with about 15 people waiting for their turn.
In a related development, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) has challenged the EC to come out with the details of those whose illegal methods have led to the bloating of the voters register, reports Timothy Gobah.
It said the “EC must come out clear with the problem, particularly the areas where the register has been bloated, as well as where the suspected minors registered, for the public to offer the help the EC was calling for”.
The Deputy General Secretary of the NDC, Mr Elvis Afriyie-Ankrah, told the Daily Graphic after the Propaganda Secretary of the party, Mr Fiifi Kwetey, had addressed a press conference in Accra yesterday that the party would avail itself of the opportunity if the EC gave the details of where these problems had occurred.
He said the NDC foresaw those problems but noted that “anytime we want to contribute to ensuring clean elections without rancour, we are tagged doom mongers”.
He said the December elections could be successful and without chaos or rancour only if there was maximum co-operation from all the political parties.
Mr Afriyie-Ankrah, however, pledged the NDC’s preparedness to co-operate with the EC to ensure violence-free elections.
For his part, Mr Kwetey challenged the democratic credentials of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), saying that the NPP, under a democratic dispensation, had unleashed more violence on the people than any other government since independence.
The propaganda secretary took a swipe at the NPP’s claim of being the prophets of press freedom, citing a lot of infraction that had taken place under the NPP regime.
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