Political Parties in Ghana demand biometric voter register

ALL the political parties in the country have now concluded that any future election based on the current voters register can undermine the democratic process in the country.
They noted that although the 2008 elections passed without any major hitches, the integrity of any future election could not be so guaranteed if it was conducted with the current register, which they described as bloated.
They, therefore, called for a complete replacement of the register, preferably with a biometric one.
Representatives of the major political parties arrived at the conclusion after a three-day Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC) meeting at Akosombo on the theme, “Safeguarding the integrity of the ballot project”.
Parties represented at the meeting were the National Democratic Congress (NDC), the New Patriotic Party (NPP), the Convention People’s Party (CPP), the People’s National Convention (PNC), the Democratic Freedom Party (DFP), the Democratic People’s Party (DPP), the Reformed Patriotic Democrats (RPD), the Great Consolidated Popular Party (GCPP) and the Ghana National Party (GNP).
The only independent presidential candidate in the 2008 elections, Mr Kwesi Amoafo-Yeboah, was also in attendance.
The view of the political parties tallied with a call made by the Chairman of the Electoral Commission (EC), Dr Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, before the 2008 elections.
In September last year, Dr Afari-Gyan described the figures on the current voters register as “statistically incorrect” and made an appeal to Ghanaians to help him and the EC to clean it up.
He explained that with the current national population of 22 million, having almost 13 million people on the register was statistically incorrect.
Explaining further, the political parties at the Akosombo meeting said “the call for a new register is necessary to deal authoritatively with practices of multiple voting and impersonation that undermine public confidence in declared results”.
They also appealed to the government to provide adequate resources in time for the EC to discharge its responsibility of replacing the register because failure could be a source of conflict during or after elections.
They also impressed upon the EC to prepare and submit its operational budget very early for the consideration of the Executive.
During the limited registration exercise just before the 2008 elections, the EC estimated that at most one million people would be registered, but the number soared to a staggering 1,835,417 which increased the voter number from 10,354,970 to 12,822,474.
The three-day meeting was organised by the EC, facilitated by the KAB Governance Consult and sponsored by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA).
It was the last in the series of nation-wide meetings to review the 2008 elections and in attendance were all the members of the EC, including their Chairman, Dr Afari-Gyan.
Another thorny issue that nearly marred the 2008 elections was the compilation of the transfer, proxy and special voting lists and the political parties at the IPAC meeting called for a comprehensive strategy from the election administrator to prevent the recurrence of that problem which caused “anxiety and confusion in the 2008 elections”.
The parties also called on the EC to insist on the strict application of rules and regulations and further provide political parties with copies of those lists before the next election.
The problem of security was also raised by the parties because, according to them, some security officials displayed open bias during the last elections and said strategies must be evolved to halt the dangerous acts.
On the issue of the use of ‘machomen’ during elections, the political parties who were the culprits agreed that they should play by the rules to ensure free and fair elections and further reduce tension.
Previous elections had produced instances of partisan and corrupt temporary EC officials. The parties, therefore, urged the EC to develop appropriate and transparent procedures for recruiting both permanent and temporary officials to secure the integrity of its personnel and the process as well.
They were of the firm opinion that all the lofty suggestions and the commitment to free and fair elections would come to naught if the EC did not plan its activities early enough and publicise same for the attention of the parties and other stakeholders.
According to the parties, that advice was to avoid the tight schedules that characterised the December 2008 elections, with the attendant anxiety and inconveniences.
The challenge of continuous electoral education for the electorate and the security agencies was identified as one of the challenges that faced the electoral process and the EC was, therefore, called upon to play the lead role, in which respect the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) and faith-based and civil society organisations must lend a helping hand.