 |
| Md. Mildred Mintah, Director of MAPnet Ghana. |
Ghanaians Are Tired Of Regular Change Of The Voters Register.....MAPnet Ghana Laments
Milabban Population Network (MAPnet) Ghana, an advocacy group, a member of National Platform for Sustainable Development Goals, Co – Convener of Central Region CSOs Sub – Platform on Sustainable Development Goals, Co – Convener of National Platform of CSOs for SDG 16 etc. puts forward a wakeup call on the Electoral Commission Ghana to update our voters’ register regularly to save the country from huge cost incurred, avoidable bloody clashes, and economic time lost to fix our voters’ register for life. This will help disabuse the minds of some Ghanaians that the Voters’ register is always changed / complied at the behest of the Government in power.
It is mind boggling and of National concern that the Electoral Commission Ghana is adopting a periodic ritual of throwing out the existing biometric voters registers for a new one. The recent biometric voters’ register compiled was funded with an amount around $150m as reported by CODEO which we, as civil society organization term it as “the blood of Ghanaians."
MAPnet Ghana, is of the strong opinion that the voters’ register which is essentially the soul of all the political parties can be cleaned regularly, new eligible voters enrolled onto it and maintained with little stress and cost for socio - political benefit if not for any major technical reasons. The only advice or solution is that, the actors (Traditional Authorities, Imams, Political parties, CSOs, Assembly members and Unit committees) have to be brought together by the Electoral Commission Ghana for a consensus to be built on how to effectively and efficiently fix our voters register permanently going forward.
MAPnet Ghana has initiated an engagement with some of the key actors including Clan heads and Imams on the adoption of a modality to assist the cleaning of the voters’ register regularly. The move is expected to yield a great result for our mother country.
The voters’ register belongs to the Citizens and not the Political parties. A cross – section of Ghanaians only go against all odds to acquire the Voters’ identification card not necessarily for voting purposes but for a transactional motive. Had it not been that, they would not have subjected themselves to a life threatening atmosphere, unfriendly weather conditions and economic time lost which is associated with the process of acquiring the ID card periodically.
MAPnet Ghana however, calls on the Electoral Commission Ghana to take pragmatic steps to save the citizens and the Nation from all forms of lost to fix the register once and for all to prevent citizens from stepping out periodically to protest against the regular change of the voters’ register.
MAPnet, Everybody counts!
Issued by Milabban Population Network Ghana
Cc:
Electoral Commission Ghana.
Office of the United Nations - Accra
All Media Houses.
CODEO.
Parliamentary Select Committee on Elections.
Political Parties.
National Peace Council.
Leadership of CSOs and Faith Based Organizations
Comments