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BE BOLD AND CHANGE VOTERS’
REGISTER – PASTORS TELL EC BOSS
Source, The Herald
September 28, 2015
The Bishops/Pastors Network is calling on the
Chairperson of the Electoral Commission, Mrs.
Charlotte Osei, to be bold and listen to the
majority of Ghanaians who are calling for a new
voters’ register for the conduct of December 2016
presidential and parliamentary elections.
In a letter, dated 22nd September, 2015, which was
addressed to the EC Chairperson, and copied to the
National Peace Council, Christian Council, the Ghana
Catholic Bishops Conference, the Ghana Pentecostal
Council, the National Association of Christian and
Charismatic Churches, the political parties and the
media, the group explained that as network of clergy
men it is their duty to pray for the leadership of
the nation, and also add their voices to matters of
national concern.
One such matter, Bishop Edmund Aryee, the Presiding
Bishop of the Bishops/Pastors Network who appended
his signature to the letter, said that a new voters’
register is of the utmost importance if Ghana is to
have a credible, transparent and unsuspicious
election.
According to Bishop Aryee, the current voters’
register has been associated with too many doubts,
controversies, disputes, negative perceptions,
errors, and many unanswered questions have deepened
suspicions about the credibility of the region. The
suspicions about the credibility of the voters'
register, he stated, largely arose out of the 2012
election petition.
Again, the man of God added that these suspicions
could lead to doubts being cast on the 2016
election, regardless of which party emerges
victorious, and thereby trigger electoral violence
in the aftermath of the December 2016 elections.
On the claims being made by Johnson Asiedu Nketia of
the National Democratic Congress and Bernard Mornah
of the People’s National Convention, who are both
calling for a cleansing of the voters’ register
instead of the compilation of a new one, he stated
that this is not enough to clear doubts being
harboured by the majority of the Ghanaian
electorate, who will continue to remain suspicious
about the authenticity of the current voters’ roll.
“To completely remove and cleanse these doubts and
suspicions from the mind of the electorate, prevent
violence and achieve a credible, free and fair
election, the option revealed to us is a new voters’
register," Bishop Aryee said.
Bishop Aryee buttressed the point that “a new
voters’ will not in any way give an advantage to any
political party or candidate,” telling Mrs Charlotte
Osei to “be bold and change the current register
which is associated with too many doubts and
suspicions.”
He added that “no matter the financial, a new
voters’ register is far less costly than electoral
violence, and loss of lives and properties.”
Bishop Aryee also recounted the efforts made by
President Mahama when, as Chairman of ECOWAS, he
recommended that the concerns of the opposition
parties in Togo be addressed before the conduct of
the 2015 election, which resulted in a new register
being compiled and the ready acceptance of the
results by all parties and stakeholders in Togo.
“If such a recommendation, through a Ghanaian former
ECOWAS Chairman, helped to prevent electoral
violence in our neighbouring country, Togo, why
can’t Ghana also apply same recommendation in our
country for the sake of peace?”, he asked.
“Be bold and use a new voter register for 2016”, he
urged Mrs. Charlotte Osei.
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