Advocacy group calls for common database Centre

The National Youth for Peace (NYFP), a youth advocacy group has called on the West African Sub Regional groupings and their international partners to establish a database centre for biometric register for the sub-region.

The group named the organisations as the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the African Union (AU), and the West African Parliament and added that the centre would achieve a common data for monitoring the transparency and credibility of election processes in the sub-region.

A statement issued in Accra by Mr Eric Bafoe Nyarko, the Executive Director of NYFP, and copied to the Ghana News Agency on Wednesday, said the decision for a common register among West African states "is long overdue as the innovation of the West African Biometric Passport and West African Parliament with a goal to achieve a common currency for states is a ground that a common registry is possible".

It noted that the essence was enormous and would prevent double and cross-counting registrations during elections, which over bloated voters’ registers caused.

The statement stressed that the centre would help maintain in West African States, quality and peaceful coexistence during and after elections, and appealed to civil society groups, religious leaders, and the media to support the call for a peaceful democratic existence.