NPP orders EC to stop voter roll audit

Ghana’s biggest opposition party – New Patriotic Party – has ordered the Electoral Commission (EC), to stop, forthwith, all internal auditing processes rolled out by the electoral body towards cleaning up the 2012 register of voters ahead of the November elections.

“The NPP is by this response calling for the immediate stop to all processes involved in the so-called internal cleaning of the register until all parties can satisfy themselves on the modalities and the means by which the so-called internal cleaning is being done,” Campaign Manager Peter Mac Manu directed at a press conference Thursday January 14.

“The NPP is hereby serving notice that it remains totally dissatisfied with the response from the EC and reiterates its conviction that only a new credible register will guarantee us a free, fair, transparent, and open election,” Mr Mac Manu insisted.

The NPP, last year, raised concerns about the sanctity of the 2012 register. Apart from claiming that there were over 76,000 Togolese on it, its flagbearer also said it was bloated by more than two million names. The party, thus, has been clamouring for a new roll, in collaboration with pressure group Let My Vote Count Alliance and some other parties. It led to the EC organising a forum over the matter. A five-member panel of eminent members tasked by the EC to handle the matter later recommended that the old register be maintained but cleaned.

The NPP, however, says it is not satisfied with that decision. It has, therefore, rejected the decision to use the same register for the November polls.

Mr Mac Manu said the party will not accept anything other than a fresh voter roll as the five-member panel confirmed, in its report, that the current register was bloated.

Mr Mac-Manu said the public is not even aware of the work being executed by a “secret” consultant in cleaning the register and noted that any review of the electoral roll by a consultant must be made public with contributions from political parties.