Ghanaians Continue To Die...Minors Come Of Age Everyday; New Voters Register Unnecessary!

In an attempt to dismiss the New Patriotic Party’s call for the compilation of a new voter roll, General Secretary for the National Democratic Congress has said that looking at the rate Ghanaians die, it would be highly impossible for the Electoral Commission to carry out the assignment.

Mr. Johnson Asiedu Nketia spoke on behalf of the NDC at the EC forum on voters' register organized at the Alisa Hotel in Accra.


According to him, the NPP's request to the EC to compile a new roll could be equated to a pursuit of something unattainable or non-existent. To the issue of aliens in our register, the NDC’s General Secretary directed that with sufficient proof, such cases can be dealt with by the Inter Party Advisory Committee (IPAC).

He explained that if the NPP’s reason for a new voter roll is based on the impersonation of the dead, then within every second the EC must be forced to come out with a new one.

This he said is because Ghanaians die every day.

“From the morning that we entered here till now, new names of dead people have been introduced unto our register – this is because Ghanaians continue to die,” he simply put.

He however admitted that the current register has flaws which should be looked at but proffered that the NPP’s solutions to the problem were one that could not be relied upon.

He took the issue of minors in our register as a case study explained that “take the issue of inclusion of minors on the register.

We (NDC) have said elsewhere in our paper that if minors were registered in 2012, they would not remain minors in 2016.

Age is not static, so if your solution is to target minors and have their names deleted; or you want to undertake a new registration because there are minors in the register, many of them who have turned adults now would come forward to register again”.

To prove his point that minors who registered in the past have come of age and are now adults, Mr. Asiedu Nketia stated “from the morning we entered here up to now, everybody here has had his or her age changed. Is that not it? Yes, you have added some hours to your age”.



Source: Chris Joe Quaicoe/ email:chris@peacefmonline.com