The ruling New Patriotic Party has expressed its satisfaction at the results from the just-ended voters’ registration as it claims that about three million ghost names, foreigners, and ineligible voters’ names have been expunged from the new register.
General Secretary of the party, John Boadu speaking at the party’s press conference held in Accra noted that the NPP has been consistent on the issue of a bloated voters’ register since 2013 and now the numbers from the current register reiterate the position they have held for a long time.
“We in the NPP party have been consistent in stressing that the old voters’ register was defective and not fit for purpose. One of the issues we had with the old register was that it was bloated. Indeed the numbers from the current register indicate that position. Until recently, the EC had always disagreed with us on our position that the register is bloated.
The fact that the old register is bloated cannot be defeated. Eventually, the EC itself decided to compile a new register. As we have stated already, the numbers that have come out of the new register confirms the long-held position that the old register was bloated”, he said.
Commenting on the history of NPP’s proposition for the compilation of a new register, the General Secretary related that the party had mounted pressure on the EC then headed by Madam Charlotte Osei which eventually brought about recommendations from the Crabbe Committee set up by the Commission.
According to John Boadu, all recommendations made by the committee “vindicated NPP’s position that the register was bloated”.
“The panel established that the old register contains several categories of ineligible registrants including multiple registrations, names of minors, names of foreigners and deceased persons. After its analysis of the facts, the Crabbe committee stated in page four of their report that the register of voters contains a substantial number of people whose names are not valid”.
Stressing on the benefit of the new voters’ register, John Boadu stated “As we speak now, the total on the new voters register list is under seventeen (17) million. That tells you that by this register alone, close to three million ghost names, multiple registrants, to a large extent foreigners or ineligible people whose names find themselves in the old register has been expunged by this process”.
The compilation of a new voters’ register was heavily opposed by the National Democratic Congress and other parties. However, the EC went ahead to compile the register which came to a successful end on the 6th of August, 2020.
