You're not doing your job properly - Mahama slams EC Commissioners

Presidential Candidate of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), John Mahama, has cautioned the Electoral Commission (EC) on inaccuracies in the recently unveiled voter register, urging the election management body to “sit up” to prevent confusion.

According to him, the voter registration process has been plagued with issues such as missing names, unauthorised changes of polling stations, and other clear violations of the country’s electoral laws.

“Recently, the Electoral Commission opened the register for people to inspect their names. I’m sorry to say there’s a lot wrong with that register. The EC has to sit up so that we don’t have any confusion on Election Day. The EC is an important institution in having peaceful elections in this country. So if the EC Commissioners are listening to me; you better wake up.”

“You’re not doing your job properly. A lot of people cannot find their names. Other people’s names have been transferred without their knowledge, and people have registered for proxy without using their biometric cards. People who have done multiple registrations, their names are still on the register,” he complained at a rally at Amasaman in Accra.

The former president warned that there could be confusion and boiling tempers when voters went to the polls on Election Day and found out their names were not there.

Mr Mahama added that while the NDC was a party of peace, its members were not going to stand idly by while they were being cheated.

Relatedly, the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) has accused the NDC of creating unnecesary confusion on the voters' register.

In an interview with Citi News, NPP’s Director of Elections, Evans Nimako, responded that the concerns raised by the NDC are precisely the reason for conducting the voter exhibition exercise.

He explained that the exercise is designed to allow stakeholders to identify and correct any errors on the register before it is finalised, dismissing the NDC’s concerns as unnecessary.

Nimako stated, “So when there’s an exhibition, the exercise is simple. It is to enable stakeholders and assist the electoral commission to come out with a register that would be the final register for an election. So, at this phase, we are doing an exhibition, so if you go to the exhibition centre and your details are not correct, all that you do is ask for the exhibition officer to give you the appropriate forms, so you feel for the right corrections to be made to your details.”

“It’s to enable you to go and check to make sure that your name and your details are in the register. If they are there and there are no questions to be made, yes, that’s the detail the EC must keep in the final register. So, when you hear people at this phase crying needlessly, it is really [surprising].

The NDC’s Director of Elections, Dr. Omane Boamah, had accused the Electoral Commission of tampering with the register following the voter exhibition exercise.

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