The Minority in Parliament has described as false the claims by Electoral Commissioner Jean Mensa that it lacks the resources to expand the ongoing limited registration exercise to the electoral areas.
According to the EC, it lacks the capacity to expand the registration process to electoral areas, as some opposition political parties have urged.
At a press conference on Monday, September 18, 2023, Commissioner Mrs. Jean Mensa told journalists that the EC had not budgeted for the restricted registration effort to be undertaken in electoral areas.
According to her, the EC did not factor the electoral area registration exercise into their budget, hence the adoption of the registration exercise in the district offices of the EC nationwide.
Mrs. Jean Mensa stressed that the 2023 budget and work plan of the EC were planned along those lines and were based on the conscious registration exercise and not a registration exercise on an electoral area basis.
She stressed that the restriction of registration to its district offices will not in any way disenfranchise voters.
But reacting, Dr. Clement Apaak, the MP for Builsa South, described the claims as false, wobbly, and an attempt by the EC to escape accountability.
He said the EC’s key responsibility is to put in place a plan that will make it easy for eligible voters to register and vote.
He referred to this as an entitlement guaranteed by the constitution in Article 41, but the EC chair has sought to belittle that right by seeking to give all these wobbly explanations rather than do the needful.
‘If it is the case that she doesn’t have the resources she needs, let us know, but as far as I know as a Member of Parliament, she has the requisite resources to extend the process to the electoral areas so that those who are qualified and meet the threshold will register and vote in dignity and not the inhumane way we see going on.’
By: Rainbowradioonline.com/Ghana
