Rawlings calls for a credible voter register

• Posted on October 15, 2015October 15, 2015
• by Nana Kwesi Coomson
• Comment

Former President Jerry John Rawlings has supported the call for a credible voter register as a means of “ensuring that things do not get out of hand,” observing that the atmosphere in the country is charged.

“The only way we can really contain and prevent things from getting out of hands is to ensure that the electoral register is as credible as possible,” he told the leadership of the pressure group, Let My Vote Count Alliance (LMVCA) when it called on him at his Ridge residence to solicit his support for a replacement of the electoral roll yesterday.

Mr Rawlings said everything possible must be done to ensure that the register for next year’s elections is acceptable to all parties, “if that means listening to what the elders are saying.”

His gloomy prognosis about the 2016 polls ties in with what a cross-section of Ghanaians, including civil society organisations and the leadership of the various churches – the latest being the Catholic Bishops’ Conference – have been saying since holes were punched in the current voter register by among other groupings, the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nduom’s Progressive People’s Party (PPP) and the Convention People’s Party (CPP).

The ruling party – the National Democratic Congress (NDC) – the former president noted, could partner the largest opposition party, the New Patriotic Party (NPP), in the demand for a replaced voter register, a prediction which meaning neared a conundrum as it were.

He wondered why the sitting government should entertain fears about a changed voter register if such a change would instil the needed confidence in the roll call of voters towards next year’s polls.

In a remark which appears to oppugn what has been described generally as the heavy-handedness of the police towards agitators for a new register when his guests led a demonstration recently, he said, “It is an unfortunate thing to abuse the sanctity of the right of choice.”

The vice presidential candidate of the NPP, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia’s presentation about shortcomings in the register, especially the detail that  over 70,000 names of persons from neighbouring countries were on the roll of voters, provided an important impetus for crusaders for the replacement of the electoral roll.

“Everything possible must be done to ensure a very credible electoral process, if this means that we listen to what the elders are saying…I think let’s do it,” he urged.

Former President Jerry Rawlings left his guests in no doubt about his currency with developments regarding the subject when he counselled the Electoral Commission (EC) to listen to the elders’ call for a credible voter register.

This could be a reference to the recent call by the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, for a credible register.

His take on the call for a new  register is his first yet since the agitations for the replacement of the roll call of voters debuted on the political terrain.

Just yesterday another opinion leader and elder stateswoman, Dr Joyce Aryee, also joined the chorus for a new electoral roll “if that will instil confidence in the electoral system.”

Warning

“There is a lot of stress in the air; there is a lot of nervousness…it is going to be a test on all of us,” according to Jerry, popularly called Papa J.

Jerry Rawlings asked the EC to listen to both protagonists and antagonists of the register’s replacement, including organised groups and individuals, in addressing doubts about the list of eligible voters.

This could be a subtle call by the former president to the EC not to turn its back on the LMVCA grouping. There appears to be a no-love-lost relationship between the grouping and the EC following the sarcastic reference by the EC Chairperson, Charlotte Osei, to “noise-making” by some persons in the country.

The LMVCA group’s demonstration, when it sought to present a petition to the EC, drew blood and a lost eye after the law enforcement agency hurled teargas at the demonstrators who were said to have deviated from an approved route.

The guests at Rawlings’ residence included Gabby Otchere-Darko, one of the victims of the beatings during the LMVCA demonstration, and Abu Ramadan, a member of the pressure group, among others.

By A.R. Gomda