Does Ghana need a new voters register? Otumfuo urges GBA to advise
The Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, has asked the Ghana Bar Association (GBA) to offer professional counsel devoid of partisan interest on the voters register to protect the integrity of the electoral system.
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He said he expected the GBA to make a pronouncement on whether or not the country needed a new voters register from a purely professional perspective because legal practitioners had a stake in protecting the integrity of the electoral system and the survival of the country’s democracy.
Otumfuo Osei Tutu was speaking at the opening session of a five-day conference of the Ghana Bar Association (GBA) in Kumasi Monday.
The conference is on the theme: “The rule of law, access to justice and sustainable development – The panacea for political and economic progress of a nation state.”
Cost of compiling new register
“I know cost continues, as it always must be, to be a factor in our consideration of such matters, but I dare suggest that this is so fundamental to the protection of our democracy and ultimately the country’s peace of mind. The cost should not be a stumbling block in pursuing what is best and desirable,” the Asantehene said.
He said since the international community was concerned about the sustenance of democracy through elections, it should be possible for external partners to fund the compilation of a new register if it became necessary for such an exercise to be conducted.
“It should be possible for the international community to fund a credible process that delivers fair and just results rather than pay for the unpredictable consequences of flawed elections,” he told the conference and urged the participants to begin the process of finding a solution to the debate.
“Nobody pretends that lawyers can be divorced from politics. Law and politics are Siamese twins. But there is a line between the political good of the country and the slavish attachment to political parties,” Otumfuo Osei Tutu said.
Entrenched positions
He noted that Ghana was going through a period in which political parties had been built up into a machinery of incredible monstrosity, seeking to manipulate and control the minds of the people.
“There is no longer right or wrong. There is only party interest; each demanding absolute obedience,” he noted.
The Asantehene called for support for the new Electoral Commissioner to help her scale over the country’s difficult electoral period.