EC’s target is to make millions of dollars, rig elections and stain Ghana’s democracy – IMANI Africa

Barely six (6) months to the Presidential and Parliamentary elections in Ghana, the Electoral Commission of Ghana led by Mrs. Jean Mensa is much determined to compile a new voter’s register for the upcoming general elections.

The decision to discard the existing register which elected the seating President H.E Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, Members of Permanent during the 2016 elections including the recent referendum which led to the creation of six new regions, and the election of Assembly Members in the December 2019 District Level Elections has been largely objected to by many Ghanaians, civil society organizations, chiefs, religious leaders, think tanks and others.

CHECK THIS OUT: New Voter’s Register: IMANI’s Franklin Cudjoe changed his decision based on facts and figures; see what he said 

Many have described the Electoral Commission’s decision as a planned agenda to rig the elections in favour of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) while others are also advocating for a new register.

In the midst of all these agitations, the EC went ahead and piloted the registration exercise for the new voter’s register from 2nd June, 2020 to 3rd June, 2020 and subsequently set June 30, 2020 to begin the mass registration exercise across the country.

READ ALSO: 

• New Voter’s Register: EC begins Pilot Registration at all Regional Offices

• EC announces date to compile the controversial new voter’s register

The founding President of IMANI Africa Mr. Franklin Cudjoe in a latest article has said, the Electoral Commission’s continuous resistance against cautions, and suggestions of many Ghanaians is a deliberate attempt to make millions of dollars through procurement of new Biometric Verification Devices for the exercise.

He also noted that, Mrs. Jean Mensa’s EC is being planted by the Ruling NPP under President Nana Akufo-Addo to discredit the results of the upcoming general elections. According to him, the EC’s plan is targeted at staining the rich reputation of the Republic of Ghana’s respected democracies in Africa.

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• EC’s huge expenditure warrants urgent audit of past similar expenditures – IMANI Africa

• Verdict: Ghana’s voter register can’t be bloated. This is why – IMANI’s Bright Simons

“If someone had assembled the world’s smartest people and given them the task to design the surest way to discredit the outcome of an impending election and stain the reputation of one of Africa’s most respected democracies, they wouldn’t have come up with anything more effective than what Ghana’s Electoral Commission (EC) is now doing. IMANI’s position has been that the EC is motivated purely by the procurement of millions of dollars of needless, useless, expensive equipment for reasons best known to its commissioners. What has been impressive is how the EC has successfully manipulated the ruling party to assist in this scheme by offering them something they had always wanted: re-registration.” He explained.

“Because the EC’s main goal has always been the procurement opportunity, they initially offered to transfer the biographical details on the existing equipment to new equipment provided new biometric data could be captured to replace the existing. They soon realised that this would lose them both the ruling party and the opposition. The opposition wants both the biometric and biographical information transferred to new equipment, if they must be bought at all. The ruling party wants neither to be transferred at all. None of the two main parties are too concerned about the millions of dollars that will be wasted on needless equipment, though the NDC has referred to the matter occasionally. The EC did the calculation and realised that though their primary interest is the brand-new equipment, they needed “political cover” too. Hence the rather bizarre u-turns.” He further explained.