Peace Council recommends investigation into registration of alleged foreign nationals

The National Peace Council (NPC) in pursuit of its mandate to prevent, manage and resolve conflicts to ensure a peaceful nation, has recommended investigations into the registration of 66 persons alleged to be Ivorians in the just ended voter registration exercise.

A statement issued by the Reverend Professor Emmanuel Asante, Chairman of the NPC, copied to the Ghana News Agency in Accra on Tuesday, said the Council recommended that the Electoral Commission (EC), the Ghana Immigration Service and the Ghana Police Service should leave no stone unturned in investigating the circumstances that led to the registration of the 66 persons at the Banda Constituency of the Bono Region.

“And officers found to have illegally registered the Ivorians must face the full rigours of the electoral laws of Ghana,” it said.

It said the EC, as a matter of urgency, should validate the voters’ register and expunge names of unqualified persons including foreign nationals and minors to ensure the integrity of the Register.

The statement said once the Voters’ Register was completed all stakeholders, particularly the political parties, were encouraged to put the past behind them and collaborate with the EC to conduct a transparent and fair elections.

It urged the Commission to sustain the “Let the Citizen Know” briefings to increase citizen’s access to information on the processes leading to the polls to ensure transparency.

The Peace Council, as part of its mandate to facilitate and develop mechanisms for conflict prevention, resolution and to build sustainable peace in Ghana, monitored the registration across the country.

The Commission registered a total number of 16,963,304 voters by the close of the mop-up exercise on August 9, 2020.

The statement said generally the conduct of the registration was peaceful and that majority of the registration centres the Council monitored were civil.

“We also acknowledge the responsiveness of the EC, which ensured availability of materials and logistics required for the registration,” it said.

“This has largely contributed to enhance key element that go to improving the credibility of such exercise namely; citizen access to information, openness and transparency. This practice is key to electoral integrity and credibility ahead of the December elections.”