Private legal practitioner lawyer Tachie Antiedu has explained that a person does not need to be a registered voter in a specific constituency to be eligible to contest an election there. Simply being a Ghanaian, 21 years or older, of sound mind, and a registered voter is sufficient.
He said Article 94 of the 1992 Constitution has clearly stated that.
The largest opposition party since Monday has been engaging in a banter with the EC after alleging that EC and NPP are plotting to illegally transfer the name of one Charles Opoku into the Assin North register to make him eligible to contest.
In the NDC statement signed by National Communications Officer Sammy Gyamfi, he said the move breached Regulation 22 of the Public Elections Regulations, 2020 (CI 127).
In reaction to the allegation, EC denied the claims, insisting that the NDC is just trying hard to malign it.
In a new statement from the NDC on Tuesday, June 6, it argued that its objection to the attempts to smuggle the name of the NPP candidate into the Assin North Voters’ Register is premised on provisions of Regulation 6(3) of the EC’s own Public Election Regulations, 2020 (C.I 127) and the nomination form for the Assin North by-election published by the EC on June 1.
But lawyer Antiedu in an interview with happyghana.com said “Your registration status as a voter is general and it’s not linked to any constituency. if a person wishes to contest in a constituency where they do not hail from, they must be ordinarily resident there or have resided there for at least five years out of the previous ten years.”
However, security analyst, Emmanuel Kutin says the posture of the electoral commission is problematic, according to him, the EC is an independent body or referee and should not be engaging in banter with one of its stakeholders.
“The EC should invite the NDC to a round table discussion and try to address their concerns rather than engaging them with counter press releases. It’s needless not necessary,” he told happyghana.com’s Joseph Nii Ankrah.