IPRAN petitions organisations over new voters register
The Inter-Party Resistance Against New Voter Register of Ghana (IPRAN) has called on local and international organisations to intervene in their opposition to the Electoral Commission’s (EC’s) decision to compile a new biometric voters register ahead of the December 7 general election.
In separate letters to religious leaders, the National House of Chiefs, statesmen and some international organisations, the group said there was no justification to compile a new voters register as the EC had established.
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“We believe that there is no justification for producing a new biometric voters register,” it said.
According to the group that comprises some members of the People’s National Convention (PNC), National Democratic Congress (NDC), All People’s Congress (APC), United Freedom Party (UFP), EGLE Party and the United Progressive Party (UPP), failure to reach a general consensus on the electoral process could result in “potential state of anarchy”.
“As you are aware, our country is constitutionally scheduled to hold both parliamentary and presidential elections on December 7, 2020, having recently conducted a national referendum and nationwide District Level Elections in 2018 and 2019 respectively.
“The country has over the years developed both formal and informal mechanisms for consensus-building among the major political parties and other stakeholders on issues relating to electoral reforms and that approach has been instrumental in fostering a culture of peace and tolerance among various political actors and institutions,” it said.
Deliberations
Chief among the reasons for the resistance, according to the group, was lack of deliberations between the EC and the political parties.
“Sadly, that tradition of deliberation and consensus-building, which was facilitated through the Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC) that consists of political parties, civil society organisations, development partners and the Electoral Commission as the main vehicle for deliberations under the two previous Electoral Commission chairpersons, has now been reduced to a residual category under the tenure of Mrs Jean Mensa”, it said.
Touching on the need for intervention from these leaders and organisations, the group said the lack of deliberations and consensus building was “poisoning the political environment ahead of the 2020 presidential and parliamentary elections in a manner that is pushing the country to the brink of chaos”.
Opposition
The group said beyond the lack of deliberations, the EC had not made it clear to them the faults with the existing register and the need to compile a new one, adding that the lack of explanation was suspicious.
“The Electoral Commission has not been clear on the specific problems it intends to solve with the production of a new voters register that the current register is incapable of solving,” it said.
Among other reasons for the strong opposition to the compilation of the new voters register, the group said “in the Constitutional Instrument (CI) submitted to Parliament in respect of compiling its new voters register, the Electoral Commission has excluded the existing voters identity card and birth certificates from the required documents for admitting citizens onto the voters register and instead opted to rely on passports and the citizens identity cards currently being processed by the National Identification Authority (NIA)”.
That, according to the group, did not provide a level playing field for parties interested in contesting the December 7 elections.
“The NIA in its present form is a public service agency under the Office of the President and its senior officers are appointed at the pleasure of the President. The decision of the Electoral Commission to rely on Ghana cards produced by the NIA, from the Office of the President, for the voters register towards an election in which the President is an interested party raises questions about the integrity of the process and the credibility of those in charge,” it said.
Petition
In separate petitions to the United Nations (UN), the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the African Union (AU) on the same issue, the group said “since the announcement by the Electoral Commission, millions of Ghanaian citizens had expressed their disapproval of the decision through demonstrations and mass protests among others in various parts of the country”.
It said to avert a major national crisis, “we the leaders of the undersigned political parties, acting on behalf of the general membership of our respective political parties and other Ghanaian citizens, are of the strong belief that the existing voters register, which has been used for several major national elections since 2012 without any problems, challenges and difficulties, is fit for purpose and must be maintained for the scheduled December 7, 2020 presidential and parliamentary elections.”