Don’t Participate in New Voters’ Registration Exercise – Ofosu Ampofo to Ghanaians

The Chairman of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Mr Samuel Ofosu-Ampofo has charged party faithful to ignore calls to participate in the Electoral Commission's (EC) mass voters registration exercise scheduled to begin on June 30.

The NDC chairman said, the party was against the compilation of the new register because of the unresolved “issues” surrounding the upcoming exercise.

He also said the country is in an unconducive state following covid-19 pandemic.

"We say no to the new register and even if Parliament passes the legislation we will not accept it. We are not just against it because they will not accept the old voter card but because the whole atmosphere in the country is not conducive," he said.

Ofosu-Ampofo was addressing a gathering of party members and executives at the NDC headquarters in Adabraka in Accra on Wednesday.

The gathering was to mark the 28th anniversary of the formation the NDC which contested its first national elections in 1992.

Already, the NDC had sued the EC over attempts by the commission to compile a new voters’ register.

The NDC argued in its suit that per Article 45 of the 1992 Constitution the EC lacks the power to go ahead with its plans because it can only “compile a register of voters only once, and thereafter revise it periodically, as may be determined by law”.

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The NDC also in its case invoked the original jurisdiction of the Supreme Court to interpret the constitution with a case that it was unconstitutional for the EC to reject an existing voters ID as a prerequisite for the upcoming voter registration exercise.

The Supreme Court hence directed the Electoral Commission (EC) to explain why it has refused to accept the old voter ID cards as a form of identification in the upcoming mass voters’ registration exercise.

The EC in response said the old Constitutional Instrument (C.I. 12) which was used in compiling the existing voters’ register did not require any require any proof of qualification to register as a voter.

This the EC said meant that, anyone who registered under C.I. 12 cannot be said to have satisfied the constitutional test of proving qualification since no proof was required even though the criteria for qualification under Article 12 was set out therein.