TOWARDS A CLEAN VOTERS REGISTER (FRIDAY, MAY 14, 2010)

ONCE again a voters’ registration exercise is set to commence next month, in accordance with Article 45(a) of the 1992 Constitution.
The limited exercise, to be undertaken by the Electoral Commission (EC) from Friday, June 11, to Sunday, June 20, 2010, will afford Ghanaians the opportunity to have their names on the electoral roll.
This is not the fresh registration of all voters but an exercise to register Ghanaians who have turned 18 and above but have not had their details captured by the EC. It is also open to qualified Ghanaians who are older but who could not register in previous exercises since 2004.
To vote in any election, one must have his or her name on the electoral roll, also known as the voters register. However, it is an offence for anybody whose name is already on the voters list to register again. Equally, it is an offence for a person to register or attempt to register if he or she is not yet 18.
The registration of voters is important because it will provide reliable data with which both the EC and the stakeholders can plan towards good elections and it is incumbent on all interested parties to ensure that an excellent job is done.
Not surprisingly, the EC has warned political parties not to repeat acts such as the transportation of people to the registration centres for them to be registered. It further stressed that political parties were only expected to send agents to the various registration centres as observers and not to meddle in the exercise.
Indeed, the DAILY GRAPHIC recalls that the last exercise organised in 2008 was bedevilled by nasty clashes, unwarranted bickering and accusations, multiple registration, as well as the registration of minors.
At the end of the day, the voters register became a subject of ridicule. Everybody, including officials of the EC, agreed that it was bloated. That apart, there were claims of manipulation, while allegations of the existence of shadow voters were levelled by one party against another.
This time round, we expect the political parties to respect laid-down rules to avoid compromising the process. We also expect them to desist from sending minors to be registered. Parents must also be on the look out for politicians who would want to exploit their children by registering them, even though they are under-aged.
The inadequacy of voter education in the past has also contributed greatly to the disenfranchisement of voters in elections. The EC must, therefore, focus on critical areas to enhance voter education in order to produce a clean national voters register.
Which ever way one looks at it, the upcoming exercise will be the greatest opportunity for the EC to restore confidence in the country's voting process and nothing must be taken for granted.
The task ahead is enormous, given the fact that the next general election is only two years away. The EC must, therefore, fine-tune its strategies to ensure that we have credible, free and fair elections, come 2012.
Our democracy is still growing and it is our collective responsibility, as a nation and a people, to ensure that we continue to move forward and not retrogress.