Postponement of voters' registration is unacceptable - NDC

Accra, April 30, GNA - The National Democratic Congress (NDC) on Wednesday said the indefinite postponement of the voters' registration exercise by the Electoral Commission (EC) without any specific reasons was unacceptable.

Mr Johnson Aseidu Nketia, General Secretary of the NDC, told journalists that the EC's reason that the voters' registration exercise, originally scheduled for May 8-17, was indefinitely postponed due to "unforeseen difficulties in procuring data capturing equipment" was untenable.

"The NDC is deeply concerned not just about the postponement, but also

the manner in which it was handled and the reasons assigned by the EC," he said.

He noted that the date for the exercise was set in consultation with the Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC) and for that matter, it was only proper that the EC consulted the IPAC when it wanted to make any adjustment to the date, rather than putting the announcement in the media without recourse to the IPAC.

Mr. Asiedu Nketia noted that with regard to the difficulties in acquiring data capturing equipment, the Chairman of the EC, Dr. Kwadwo Afari-Djan, admitted to IPAC last year that the EC lacked adequate funds for the equipment.

He said the need for the purchase of new data collection equipment stemmed from the fact that the manufacturer of the equipment had phased out the product that EC was using and for that matter the EC needed funds to acquire the new brand, do a test run and train personnel to work with it.

He said EC in 2007 requested for 51 million Ghana cedis for the December 2008 elections but Parliament in early December 2007 approved 36 million Ghana cedis from the consolidated fund for it so it could acquire the said equipment.

Mr. Asiedu Nketiah said following a debate in Parliament about the inadequacy of the funds it was agreed on December 31, 2007 that the EC, Ministry of Finance and the leadership of the House should present a supplementary budget in February 2008 to cover the shortfall in the EC requirement.

He said following that decision, EC had not informed IPAC or the public whether it had the funds or not. "Our question therefore is if the funds are available, then what are the real reasons for the postponement?"

Mr Asiedu Nketia noted that if the reasons were in connection with the ongoing investigations into the alleged bloating of the voters' register then the EC should be frank with the public about that instead of giving some untenable reasons.