A political scientist at the University of Ghana (UG), Professor Ransford Gyampo has said that the compilation of the new voters’ register by the Electoral Commission was a needless exercise.
According to him, although the Electoral Commission succeeded in compiling the new voter roll as it assured, he will be a hypocrite to alter his position on the nation-wide exercise conducted.
“My position is that the new voters’ register was not necessary and it is from a principled position; I will never change it today or tomorrow; it was needless to compile new voters’ register.”
Emphasizing his stands, the Director of the Centre for European Studies at UG revealed that all the political parties, the EC and other stakeholders decided not to again conduct a major activity in an election year after the 2012 election.
This is because, similar tensions and happenings that characterised the just ended registration exercise occurred prior to the 2012 general elections, as a result of some programmes by the EC, especially, the creation of the biometric voter register and the creation of new constituencies.
He pointed out that, he was a coordinator for an IEA sponsored program in which some of the major stakeholders in the electoral process, not excluding the political parties and the EC, discussed a proposal for electoral reforms in the country.
According to him, the stakeholders at that particular meeting decided the,
“EC should bring a calendar of its activities showing what it is going to do before another election but in the election year we should not do anything which is major.
“The political parties said that, what made the 2012 election tensed which culminated into {the} election petition was the introduction of a bio-metric register by the EC introduced in an election year and within that same year, additional constituencies were created. And so, it was the political parties that agreed that there should not be any major activities in the election year.
“…now the purpose for the meeting to end tension, acrimony, and violence which characterized the election has been breached as the same stakeholders who signed the treaty violated it…
“I was the coordinator of that program and if something that all the political parties signed against have been abused, why should I support it? I can’t support it and that is my position that something that we all have agreed to do, you have gone against it.”
Not only has the Professor described the national exercise as “needless” but IMANI Africa, a social and public policy think tank, has also called out the wastefulness of the process.
