The Minority Leader of Parliament and National Democratic Congress (NDC) Member of Parliament (MP) for Tamale South, Haruna Iddrisu, has argued that even though a credible voters’ register is an absolute necessity in elections, there is no need for a new voters’ register for the conduct of the 2020 presidential and parliamentary elections, wondering when a register that has produced the sitting President, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, became so discredited.
“We in the NDC are of the firm belief that a credible voters’ register is a sin qua non to the conduct of free, fair and credible elections.
But we know that the same voters’ register that the NPP is struggling to discredit is the same register that gave birth to Nana Addo Dankwa as President of Ghana.
The same register gave birth to his creation of additional regions in the exercise of the referendum…When did the register go so wrong to become so discredited and not good enough for 2020 elections?” He wondered in an address in Tamale during the commissioning of a clinic last Friday.
He said that the current voters’ register is credible enough for the 2020 elections, maintaining that “we don’t need a new register for the 2020 presidential elections.”
The Electoral Commission of Ghana (EC) has argued that the current register though credible is overstretched and has some GHC 443 million for the compilation of a new register.
But Mr Iddrisu has insisted that the EC needs at 764 million for the exercise.