THE information from the Electoral Commission (EC) that this year’s voters register for the December general election could be bloated by as many as one million voters should be a source of concern.
This is due to the important role the electoral roll plays in the democratic and election process in the country. A bloated register raises doubts about the credibility of the voting exercise and so should engage the attention of all, particularly in the light of concerns raised earlier by the National Democratic Congress (NDC).
What started as a smooth programme for the entire election process when the EC undertook an exercise to replace missing or misplaced ID cards took a chaotic and challenging turn as people turned out to register when the voters registration exercise commenced on July 31.
Though it was an exercise meant for people who had just turned 18 years or missed the earlier registration exercises, there were reports that the long queues that characterised the registration during the two-week exercise were compounded by underage voters as well as those who had misplaced their cards or had relocated from their last place of residence, even though those categories of people were not part of the exercise.
But perhaps, the EC must blame itself for the current situation as it is obvious that they may have taken for granted things regarding the review of the voters register, particularly adequate education of the public about the process.
Had the EC adequately informed the public about the latest exercise or teamed up with the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) to educate the public and prospective voters on the essence of the exercise, the problems encountered may not have arisen.
The EC may have done its homework about the number of prospective voters. But did they also factor in the craze for the voters IDs, which are now commonly being used as identification for many official transactions, especially at the banks and non-bank financial institutions?
What about the activities of the two main political parties, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the NDC, to whip up interest to get more people to register and take part in the voting exercise, thereby encouraging people who, in the past, were indifferent to the process?
The EC may be prepared to clean up the register before the final voting day in December but as a people, we could have avoided this challenge, if all the stakeholders played by the rules.
Now it should be clear to all that if the National Identification Cards project had been speeded up and not opposed by a section of the public as grounds for rigging elections, it would have been easier for the EC to verify those who really qualify to vote in order to maintain the integrity of the electoral roll.
But while we all bite our fingers for presiding over a chaotic exercise, we should support efforts to retool the Births and Deaths Registry so that it can register everybody born in Ghana. This initiative will end the situation where electoral officials have very little grounds to challenge the eligibility of prospective voters because there are no documents to do so.
Maybe, we, as a people can also begin to look at an all-year-round registration exercise, where people who turn 18 and those who have not registered but wish to do so can walk to any office of the EC to do so at any given time. This will, no doubt, avoid the shameful spectacle observed during the recent registration exercise, where even minors could force their way to the registration centres to be registered, with the encouragement of political parties.
Cleaning up the electoral register will be a big challenge to the EC, considering how close we are to December 7.
However, that is the only way to have a credible register, which is one of the prerequisites for undisputed elections. The Daily Graphic reminds the EC to also be cautious in cleaning the register so that some eligible voters are not disenfranchised.
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