Ghana: Opposition Parties Stage Massive Demo Over New Voter Roll

Demonstrators in Kumasi over the new voter roll

January 21, 2020//-Members of the Inter-Party Resistance against the New Voters Register are demonstrating this morning [Tuesday, 21 January 2020] in Kumasi in the Ashanti Region of Ghana.

The group made up of the main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), the People’s National Convention (PNC), and other smaller parties are kicking against the EC’s decision to compile a new voter’s register.

This is the second in a series of demonstrations planned by the group.

Clad in red attire the group marched through the principal streets of Kumasi.

Speaking to Class News’ regional correspondent, the Director of Elections of the NDC,  Elvis Afriyie Ankrah said looking at the massive crowd Ghanaians agree that “the EC and NPP are leading us to path of destruction and we expect you the media to hold them accountable and scrutinise them because its obvious from all the arguments they’ve raised that whatever they are saying for the need for the new voter register just doesn’t make sense. Its either they have an agenda to rig the election or it’s a procurement thing, they just want to steal our money…”

The EC believes the integrity of the 2020 polls could be undermined if a new roll and a new Biometric Voter Management System are not put in place.

In a statement, the EC said: “The current kits and solutions are obsolete: They are End-Of-Life (EOL) and can no longer be supported by their Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM).

The immediate past vendors of the solution proposed that the Commission replace all the equipment and also upgrade the Data Centre. This was rehashed by the Consultants we engaged to audit our systems

“It is important to emphasise that whether we compile a new voters’ register or not, there is the need to acquire new equipment to replace the obsolete kits acquired in 2011.  It is therefore important to delink the procurement of equipment and kits from the registration exercise.

Demonstrators

We state again that whether or not the EC compiles a new register or conducts a limited registration exercise, we will procure new kits to replace the obsolete ones. Additionally, we will acquire a new data centre with robust state-of-the-art servicers and equipment at the cost of 6 Million Dollars instead of upgrading the existing one at the cost of 15 million United States Dollars as proposed by the previous vendors.

“Again, we are replacing the existing software with a new one to enable us own and control our systems unlike the previous situation where the solution was owned, controlled and managed by the vendors.

“There is no doubt that the voter register is bloated. The bloat is because we have not developed an effective way of cleaning the register.  The bloated register increases the cost of our elections. The Commission always procures election materials based on the number of registered voters. This causes a lot of waste as the number of registered voters exceeds the actual voters.

“Considering the above challenges, the Commission has come to the conclusion that it will be cheaper and prudent to acquire new BVRs and BVDs which are robust and user friendly than to upgrade old and obsolete ones. Again, the Commission will go ahead with the preparation of a new biometric voters’ register based on the reasons provided earlier”.

African Rye Report/ classfmonline.com

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