EC rejects bloated resgiter

Front March 05/2008

Story: Charles Benoni Okine

THE Electoral Commission (EC) has refuted the voter registration figures of 13 constituencies within the Ashanti Region as brought before it by the National Democratic Congress (NDC).
Consequently, it has distributed what it describes as the “authentic” figures in the disputed constituencies to all the political parties for their perusal.
The Chairman of the commission, Dr Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, told the media shortly after the Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC) meeting in Accra yesterday that “what we have printed from our database and given to the parties are the authentic figures”.
He said the figures from the database of the commission were completely at variance with the ones held by the NDC.
However, he said the commission had agreed to jointly conduct further investigations with the political parties to ascertain the actual contents of a CD Rom that the NDC claimed to have received from the commission.
The NDC raised alarm at the weekend over figures it said it had received earlier from the EC and challenged the voter registration figures in 13 of the constituencies in the Ashanti Region which had increased by over 110 per cent.
Although the EC Chairman admitted that the commission granted the request of the NDC some time ago after the latter had sought information from the commission, he could not comprehend how the contents with regard to the actual voter registration figures on the CD Rom differed from the figures at the commission.
“Yes, the NDC requested formally in writing to be given some information and we did exactly that. What we are surprised about is the difference between what they have on that CD Rom and the authentic figures in the commission’s database,” he said.
Dr Afari-Gyan said the figures from the EC database were totally at variance with the figures put up by the NDC, reiterating that “it is based on this that the entire membership of the parties and the commission have agreed to get to the bottom of the matter”.
“We believe in the figures we have in our database and we stand by them as the authentic one,” he stated categorically.
Dr Afari-Gyan said the commission had compared its figures with those in the Ashanti Regional Office of the commission, saying the two tallied.
He said the percentage increase in registered voters for the 39 constituencies in the Ashanti Region as of 2006 was six per cent, not 113 per cent as claimed by the NDC.
Asked whether the number of polling stations in the country would be increased from the proposed 5,000 for the registration of new voters, he replied in the negative, saying, “This is a mini exercise and we cannot use all the 24,000 polling stations.”
He said such a move would be a waste of money, time and resources “because we expect to capture only about one million new voters. They will be people who have just attained 18 and can now vote”.
Dr Afari-Gyan refuted claims that the issue raised by the NDC had affected the credibility of the commission.
“It was an issue raised but we have produced what is authentic and we expect all right-thinking Ghanaians to believe what we have produced,” he added.
The meeting was boycotted by the Leader of the United Renaissance Party (URP), Mr Kofi Wayo, who said he did so because of the presence of representatives of donor partners at the meeting.
He said the presence of representatives of the donors at the meeting was unnecessary and an affront to the dignity of Ghanaians, since “we are capable of organising a successful, rigging-free and violence-free elections without any foreign partners”.
The media were not allowed to sit in.
Mr Wayo, who engaged journalists in a conversation outside the meeting hall for more than two hours, expressed concern over how the nation, which had independence 51 years ago, could still rely on foreign partners to organise credible elections.
“We have gold, diamond, bauxite, rivers and many natural resources that our donor partners don’t have. Why do we, then, allow our fate to be determined this way?” he queried.
On the water crisis that currently faces the nation, Mr Wayo called on the government to terminate the contract it signed with Aqua Vitens Rand Company Limited, stressing that “these companies don’t have any track record to handle our water problem”.
He wondered how people in a nation endowed with many water resources would trot with cans, on daily basis, in search of good drinking water and blamed it on the lack of focus and direction on the part of leadership.
Mr Wayo commended former President Rawlings, the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, and the Okyenhene, Osagyefuo Amoatia Ofori Panin, for their leadership roles and concern for mankind.
He also urged media practitioners not to compromise their profession for any immediate reward, saying, “As the Fourth Estate of the Realm, you must work fearlessly and defend the rights of the ordinary people.”