The National Democratic Congress is advocating for a guideline detailing persons who qualify to be part of the Registration Review Committees that would hear the cases of those whose eligibility were challenged in the voter’s registration.
Director of Elections of the party, Samuel Ofosu Ampofo, says there is currently no such guideline, noting this could expose the Electoral Commission to legal battles with persons who may be disqualified by the Committees.
Speaking on Onua FM’s Yen Sempa Wednesday, Mr Ampofo underscored the need for the EC to come out clear and state in the guideline, “step-by-step” who qualify to serve on the Committees in order to forestall legal suits against it.
A total of 18,986 people who registered in the just ended limited voter’s registration exercise had their eligibility challenged nationwide on various grounds.
Those who were challenged had their voter’s identity card retained by the officials of the Electoral Commission at the various district offices across the country until the determination of their cases.
The Ashanti Region recorded the highest number of people who were challenged with 5,084 while the Upper West had 246, the lowest number of cases.
The Greater Accra recorded 15,000 cases, and already, the various District Registration Review Committees have begun hearing the challenge cases.
The committees are to determine the eligibility of those who were challenged, and if found to be eligible, their voter’s identity cards released to them to enable them vote in the November 7 general elections.
The committees are made up of representatives of the various political parties, religious and traditional leaders as well as the security agencies and judges.
Mr. Ofosu Ampofo told the host the show, Kwame karikari that the some party agents during the registration exercise, connived with others to either accept or reject a voter they viewed as ineligible, something he said is not good for the process.
He said there should be a clear reason for the challenge, adding, “numerous challenges on the exercise show mistrusts in the system”.
Continuous registration
Mr Ofosu Ampofo said the continuous registration being considered by the Electoral Commission to register people once they turn 18 years, will have both financial and human resource stress on the political parties.
“The difficulty is that political parties, if they want to observe the continuous registration, must have all representatives in all the EC offices across the country the whole year and that is serious,” he argued.
He added “that will put pressure on the parties so we should look at the enduring system that will be good for all”.
NIA system
He thus underscored the need to find alternative to the continuous registration, and cited the National Identification system as one that can be considered, saying “we should look at the national database. That is why the National Identification System should be used because that will help”.
Kweku Antwi-Otoo|Onua 95.1FM|tv3network.com
Dry Dock workers at the Tema shipyard are demanding the immediate removal of their Chief Executive officer, Ahmed Ali Tunde on claims of mismanagement of funds.
The workers in a bid to register their concerns to government, presented a petition at the presidency to demand the immediate removal of the Mr Tunde.
This, however, did not go down well with management, leading to the termination of the appointment of two of the senior workers at the shipyard.
The workers have petitioned Minister for transportation, Fifi Kwetey, on the issues but he is yet to respond.
Meanwhile, Tunde is yet to respond to the allegations against him and his management by the workers who demonstrated Tuesday.
Josephine Frimpong|3news.com|Ghana
Independent aspiring Member of Parliament for Klottey Korley, Nii Noi Nortey, has disassociated himself from campaign posters with a side-by-side picture of him and the presidential candidates of the various parties.
“We believe this activities are aimed at tarnishing the hard won reputation of Nii Noi Nortey. Please take note that this is not coming from Nii Noi Nortey nor our campaign office,” the campaign team said in a statement issued Wednesday.
“We will work with any presidential candidate elected to lead Ghana in the next four years but we want to state unequivocally that we are an independent candidate with much support base across the political divide and as such do not attach ourselves to any presidential candidate of any political party,” the statement said.
Background
Mr Nortey in March this year resolved to fall out of the New Patriotic Party to contest the Klottey Korley constituency seat as he accused the party of scheming against him in the primaries which he first won but lost in a re-run to his contender, Philip Addison.
The former constituency chairman of the party was elected winner in the primary held last year with a total of 393 votes as against Mr Addison’s 22 votes, leaving a third contestant with 19 votes.
The two contestants raised red flags about the election which they boycotted due to the party’s refusal to change the date of the said primary. They then went to court where an order was given for a re-run of the primary in the constituency
Addison polled 396 to emerge winner in the re-run primary. Nii Nortey polled 367
votes cast.
By Stephen Kwabena Effah|3news.com|Ghana
Twitter @steviekgh
The Drug Law Enforcement Unit of the Ghana Police is calling for the decriminalisation of cannabis as a way of winning the fight against peddling and abuse of the drug in Ghana.
