The flagbearer of the National Democratic Congress, John Dramani Mahama, says the two-day extension of the ongoing voter exhibition exercise is woefully inadequate.
According to him, the additional days are not enough to resolve the numerous challenges identified in the new voters’ register.
The extension means the exhibition exercise which started last Friday, September 18, will end on Sunday, September 27, 2020.
Mr. Mahama spoke at NDC headquarters in Accra on Thursday, September 24, 2020, and complained that a number of names are missing from the register
He added that the party will not accept the results of the 2020 elections if the issues raised about the register are not addressed immediately.
“Even though the occurrence of anomalies during voter exhibition exercises is not new, the sheer volume and magnitude of the recorded anomalies in the ongoing voter’s exhibition exercise are unusual, unprecedented and give us genuine cause for concern about the credibility of the register and the integrity of the electoral process.”
“This is particularly so given the limited amount of time that we have for the resolution of these major challenges. It is obvious that the EC, despite the desperate public relations attempts, recognises its failures and the potential challenges to the electoral process, of its actions. We believe that the decision to extend the exhibition period to Sunday, September 27 vindicates the position of the NDC. We, however, think that a two-day extension is inadequate to address the magnitude of issues to be resolved.”
Mr. Mahama further called on the international bodies to arrive in the country early to monitor activities within the country ahead of the elections.
“Finally, I wish to make an appeal to the international community and its election observers. Given all that has gone amiss with the electoral process and the likelihood of continued greater challenges ahead of the election, I would like to urge them to focus their lenses on Ghana and arrive earlier in-country than ever before.”
NDC has data on omitted names in register
The NDC says the party has detailed reports on the number of names omitted in the voters’ register.
This was made known by the Director of Elections of the party, Elvis Afriyie Ankrah, according to him, this has been done in the NDC’s stronghold.
“When you have an EC that did not meet with political parties before the exhibition exercise and when you have a register that has been badly compiled, with tens of thousands of names missing from the register, there is no point in being out on the field campaigning. We are going to present him [Mahama] with detailed reports. We have detailed reports from every single region. We will meet with our flagbearer and decide on the next course of action.”
According to him, the party collated numbers during the voters’ registration exercise.
“What they [EC] don’t know is that we have generated our own register. We put together daily reports from the registration exercise.”
“In any case, when the [Ashaiman] MP went to check his name on the register, wasn’t the EC there? Did they object then that his name was not in the register? It does not make sense. Why will an MP go to a registration centre, EC officials are there, his name is in the register, and he says his name is not on the register? The EC subsequently picked the MP’s name and picture and published it. That is deceitful,” he added.
The post Two-day extension of voter register exhibition woefully inadequate – Mahama appeared first on Citinewsroom - Comprehensive News in Ghana.
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