Kofi Akpaloo jabs NDC for complaining about cost of new voter's register

The Founder and leader of the Liberal Party of Ghana (LPG), Percival Kofi Akpaloo, has chided the NDC for complaining about the introduction of new voters register by the Electoral Commission(EC).

According to him, during the limited registration exercise, the EC spent GHC 487,980,714 but now the 2020 registration is expected to cost GHC 390, 265, 486 which is even cheaper than the limited registration conducted in 2016 so I don’t why the NDC are complaining,” Percival Kofi Akpaloo told Lawyer Ohene Gyan on ‘Pae Mu Ka’ on Accra-based Kingdom FM 107.7

Therefore, he said, “the amount of GHc487.9 million spent by the Charlotte Osei-led EC on just limited voters registration in 2016 was much more than the proposed amount of GH¢448 million to be spent by the Jean Mensah-led EC, not on limited registration but on an entirely new biometric system with more functionalities”.

The overall budget approved for the Commission’s activities this year stands at GHS1.3 billion, down from GHS 1.8 billion approved in 2016.

According to him, the current register is flawed and that there is no doubt that the voters’ register is over-bloated.

Kofi Akpaloo said he doesn’t see the reasons why a particular group of people or a political party would organise demonstrations to kick against EC’s decision to compile new voters’ register.

He wondered why any political party or group would be opposed to an exercise by the EC intended to enhance the credibility of the polls in December.

He further emphasised how key elections were to the sustenance of the multi-party democracy of the country, noting that since the cost of a disputed election could not be quantified, it would not be too expensive to spend GH¢448 million to secure the peace of this country before, during and after a general election.