“The end effect of the validation exercise is to have a whole new register, when the arguments for a new register have collapsed.” Pollster Ben Ephson told Kasapa 102.3 FM Wednesday.
The concern raised by Ephson is that a good number of the voting population will be disenfranchised should the EC open the avenue for the system to undertake a validation exercise.
“You cannot disenfranchise people who have their names on the register now. What you can do is when it’s time for the limited registration you can stop people on it,” he added.
The NPP and its allied pressure groups, including the Let My Vote Count Alliance(LMVCA) last week demonstrated against the EC to force it to validate the electoral roll as recommended by the Justice VCRAC Crabbe panel.
The opposition claimed EC’s posture makes it clear that it does not intend to carry out records validation for registered voters.
But Ephson, on Anopa Kasapa on Kasapa 102.3 FM intimated that what is at stake vis a vis the validation is only “a back door way to having a new register”
“As it stands, if during the exhibition process you’re unable to go and verify your name, you can’t be barred from voting because there is no law that binds people to go through the exhibition process at all cost since that could vary one’s chances of voting,” Ephson explained.
The EC has resolved not to undertake the validation exercise.
The Election management body said instead of the validation, it will clean the electoral roll using the provisions of the existing law which says that ‘When the register is exhibited, a voter can go and object to the inclusion of another person’s name by reason of being a dead person, foreigner, minor, having done double or multiple registration and not being of sound mind as provided for by the Constitution.’
The decision emerged after a meeting of the Inter Party Advisory Committee (IPAC) late March.
Source: GhanaWeb
