Executive Secretary of Care Ghana, David Kumi has disclosed that the policies of the African Union are highly against reforms being instituted by the Electoral Commission (EC).
According to him, per the African Union’s policies, no country is expected to make major reforms to their electoral processes a year prior to elections.
He made this disclosure in an interview with Happy 98.9 FM’s Samuel Eshun on the Happy Morning Show. “AU policies insist that a year prior to elections, member states should not make any new reforms to their voters register. But we are trying to do that in Ghana.”
He noted that the three major reforms being undertaken by the EC goes against the AU’s policies, a main reason the EC should not proceed with the compilation of the new voter register. “The EC is not undertaking one but three major reforms. They’re replacing machinery and equipment, introducing facial recognition software and changing the voter register all in a period of about 8 months.”
Care Ghana insists it is inappropriate for the EC to make these reforms and believe with such processes being conducted within a short period of time, the EC is likely to face challenges and also disenfranchise many Ghanaians.
Some political parties and Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) have been against the compilation of the new voters register right from the onset.
These groups felt justified when the EC’s piloting project for compiling the new voter’s register failed in certain parts of the country last week due to some technical challenges.
By: Joel Sanco