The opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) has called for the creation of a new voters register no later than June 2016 to replace the existing over bloated register.
According to the party, the new register should result in the issue of permanent voter cards with biometric information embedded in the cards as was the case in Nigeria recently.
The NPP which claims to have strong evidence backing its claim of a bloated register at a News Conference in Accra, addressed by its Running Mate for the 2016 election, Dr Mahamadu Bawumia stated that the new register that is compiled should be independently audited by an internationally reputable firm before the 2016 election.
He said copies of the register should be provided to political parties in both the electronic (CSV file) and (PDF file) formats.
Dr Bawumia noted that the new register should be sorted alphabetically by last name and gender, adding that it should clearly delineate voters registered oversees by country and basis for registration (e.g., Mission, Scholarship etc).
The former Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana further stated that statistically the data supporting the new voters register (i.e. total number of votes, split by gender, polling stations, electoral areas, constituency, region and country) should be provided to political parties.
“ The Public Election (Registration of Voters) Regulation 2012, CI 72 be amended to ensure that political parties receive copies of final register of voters based on which the EC will be conducting the general elections at least ninety(90) days before the conduct of the election”.
“Regulations 1 (4) of C.I 72 be amended to read that a registered voter cannot guarantee more than two (2) potential registrants. Copies of such registration should be made available to the political parties and should also be accessible by the general public”.
