1.2m ‘voters’ risk disenfranchisement – NDC Elections Director

• Posted on May 28, 2019
• by Nana Kwesi Coomson
• Comment

The Director of Elections of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) has expressed fears that the state’s governing body on elections risk disenfranchising over 1.2 million eligible voters.

To avert this, Elvis Afriye Ankrah said the Electoral Commission (EC) should consider an immediate U-turn from its planned strategy for the upcoming limited voters’ registration.

Speaking on MultiTV’s AM Show Tuesday, Afriye-Ankrah said data available to the NDC from the Population Council shows that from 2016 to 2019, over 1.7 million people have turned 18.

However, the EC according to Mr Afriye-Ankrah told political parties at an Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC) meeting that the Commission projects 500,000 as its target for the limited voter registration.

This, the former Youth and Sports Minister argues would automatically disenfranchise 1.2 million people who should otherwise be able to vote.

The Jean Mensah-led EC he said is not carrying on regular practice because since their projection is a steep decline from previous ones.

In 2014, the projection, he said was 1 million and that was increased to 1.2 million in 2016. If the tradition must go on, Mr. Afriye-Ankrah said the EC should target 1.5 million people.

Since they are only targeting half a million, Mr. Afriye-Ankrah fears the difference of 1.2 million would be cheated out of their inalienable right.

This, he says is “voter suppression” by the EC.

Registration Centres

Mr Afriye-Ankrah also reiterated the NDC’s argument that the registration needs to be decentralised to the electoral areas.

Failure to do this, he said would further disenfranchise more people.

The EC has previously said it will conduct the registration at the District Offices. However, the NDC avers that a lot of voters would be left out since people have to travel over 200 km to the District Offices.

Justifying this case, Mr Afriye-Ankrah said whenever the registration is sent to the electoral areas, about 80% to 90% of the target is reached.

However, when it is held at the District Office less than 50% of the target is met.

The EC has, however, said it would make special arrangement long distance cases.

By: Oswald Azumah|