EC wants to change existing law on elections – Asiedu Nketia
The General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Johnson Asiedu Nketia has alleged that the Electoral Commission wants to change the existing law on elections in the country.
This follows a proposed Constitutional Instrument (C.I) by the Electoral Commission for continuous registration.
Reacting to this, he contended that EC’s real intention for introducing the C.I is not for continuous registration.
“This whole idea of trying to throw dust into the eyes of the Ghanaian public that the law is for continuous registration is completely false.”
This, according to him, is because there are no two laws for registration in Ghana and that it has always been one law for registration.
He added that “the same law that will provide for registration can be used for continuous registration, it can be used for limited registration and a total overhaul of the register.”
“Going by the history of the Electoral Commission, nobody is convinced if EC just comes out without anything in the law and then to tell us that believe us that we are going to use it continuous registration. What happens if they use it for something else? “he quizzed.
Speaking in an interview on JoyNews‘ PM Express on Tuesday, Mr. Nketia said when the new proposed C.I comes into force “all the laws based on which the previous registers have been done, they are all going to be repealed.”
When asked by the Host, Evans Mensah, whether he suspects the EC wants to change the law by doing away with the 2020 register, Mr. Nketia said “yes, by their history.”
He cited the use of the National Health Insurance card to support his claims.
“We have been here before… EC has used a health insurance card as a document in registering to build a previous register. That matter was closed and we had a register intact, then somebody goes to court that the Heath Insurance card cannot be used to identify Ghanaians for the purpose of registration … the court ruled and EC was compelled to go back and deleted all the names of people who registered with health insurance card,” he said.
Meanwhile, former Electoral Commission (EC) boss, Dr. Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, has warned of possible multiple voting and ballot stuffing in the 2024 polls should the Commission’s proposed Constitutional Instrument receive parliamentary approval.
Dr. Afari-Gyan defines multiple voting as “where one person votes more than once.”
Ballot stuffing, on the other hand, he explains is “where an unscrupulous person puts into the ballot box additional ballot papers that were not duly cast in accordance with the election law”.
These two voting anomalies, he argues, could occur because the proposed law captures two kinds of Voters Register.
Source: Ghana News
