The Jean-Mensa led Electoral Commission(EC) says the compilation of a new voters’ register for the 2020 general elections will begin in April despite the lack of consensus over the matter.
Speaking on Starr FM today, the Director of Electoral Services of the EC Dr Serebour Quaicoe stated that the Commission hopes to complete the exercise by the end of May.
”By our projections, we want to start the compilation by mid- April and by the end of May we have compiled them. By the end of August, the provisional register should be ready so we can use it for nominations in September”.
He also said that the commission has not communicated the timelines to the political parties indicating that the commission is yet to finalise and come out with a meeting with the political parties to let them know.
Commenting on the demonstrations and arguments made by interest groups and political parties about the compilation of a new voters register he said:” With the demonstrations by the political parties, we see them as pieces of advice .we will put all of them together, those that are useful to us we add them to our activities and move on. We don’t have time to waste”
Again, reacting to the claim by the National Identification Authority that it is willing to hand over its data to the EC, he said: “We have a challenge with their data, we are targeting over 10million people but they have about 7 million so we don’t know when the will be ready. And besides, we have to attach a polling station to all those numbers”.
READ ALSO: Inter-Party Resistance against new voters’ register holds demo in Kumasi today
Meanwhile, the main opposition NDC and other parties are against the compilation of new voters register by the Electoral Commission ahead of the December Presidential and parliamentary elections are demonstrating in Kumasi in the Ashanti region today.
The first protest to challenge plans of the new register was held at Tamale in the Northern region.
The group insist a new register is a waste of taxpayers money and could also create tension since the election is close.
READ ALSO: 2020 elections: Compiling new voters’ register will cause more challenges – Kwame Jantuah
The Electoral Commission, however, insists they will go ahead and create the register despite the disagreement by the parties and civil society organisations.
Last week, a coalition of major Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) and key individuals under the Ghana Anti-Corruption Coalition (GACC) in a statement rejected the decision of the Electoral Commission (EC) to compile a new voters’ register ahead of this year’s general elections.
READ ALSO :18 CSOs oppose EC’s new voters’ register
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