EC to register newly qualified voters annually

The meeting, which was sponsored by DFID and facilitated by KAB Governance Consult, focused on challenges that occurred during Election 2012 in the region and recommendations for future elections.

She noted that some of the political parties viewed the EC with suspicion and the Commission equally did not trust certain political parties because of their practices.

Hajia Sahadatu Maida said: “As stakeholders in the electoral process, we should, therefore, evolve mechanisms that would enable us to build trust among ourselves and share responsibilities.”

She said the meeting was aimed at gathering information and feedback on what went wrong in the last election for improvements to be made in future ones.

Hajia Sahadatu stressed that the meeting had nothing to do with the election petition that was pending at the Supreme Court.

The most contentious issue raised at the meeting was the refusal of political parties in the region to disclose the identities of their polling agents to the EC before elections ostensibly for fear that they could be compromised.

Officials of the EC in the region said that behaviour of the political parties often made their work difficult during elections because they did not get the chance to ensure that polling agents were well-trained to carry out their duties at the polling stations.

Mr Hafiz Bin Salih, Second Upper West Regional Vice-Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), said the NPP refused to submit names of its polling agents to the EC because the party did not trust the Commission and its political opponents.

He suggested that the EC should always train party executives, who would in turn train their agents. - GNA