General News of Thursday, 4 April 2019

Source: asempanews.com

Reconsider decision to compile new register – CODEO

National Coordinator for CODEO, Albert Arhin play videoNational Coordinator for CODEO, Albert Arhin

The Coalition of Domestic Election Observers (CODEO) wants the Electoral Commission to reconsider its decision to compile a new voters’ register.

CODEO argues that a new electoral roll independent of the National Identification Card would be a waste of resources.

The Commission announced last week at an Inter-Party Advisory Committee Meeting that it would compile a new register for the 2020 presidential and parliamentary elections.

The move has already triggered some opposition from the National Democratic Congress (NDC) which believes that the proposal was not discussed at the IPAC meeting.

The EC, however, said it arrived at the decision in consultation with the various political parties.

It said the new register will include enhancing features, making it worthy of Ghana’s democracy.

Reacting to the EC’s announcement, the NDC demanded the withdrawal of the communique issued by the EC insisting no consensus was reached on the matter.

According to the party, no such decision was taken during the IPAC meeting.

“In fact, the compilation of a new voters’ register was only mentioned in passing by the EC during a discussion on limited registration. There certainly was no “extensive deliberations “ on this particular matter,” the party said in a statement.



The National Coordinator for CODEO, Albert Arhin, believes the country would save a lot of money if the EC stuck to the Ghana Card as the main form of identification at next year’s polls.