No demo will stop EC from compiling new register – Commissioner

The Electoral Commission (EC) of Ghana says it has no plans to halt the acquisition of a new voter roll in the face of protests.

About eight political parties forming the Inter-Party Resistance Against a New Voters’ Register (IPRNA) and other Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) have called on the EC to drop the plans.

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The anti-new-register group held a protest in Tamale on Saturday with similar demonstrations scheduled for Kumasi and Accra.

Reacting to the protests, Deputy Commissioner of the EC, Dr Eric Asare Bossman, said the election management body will go ahead with its plans since it is in the best interest of the country.

“The Commission has made it very clear that looking at where we find ourselves now, it will be more appropriate and better for us to be able to compile a new register to guarantee and ensure that we have a credible, free and fair election,” he told Joy FM on Monday.

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He continued: “We have to do the right thing for country and God and in the thinking of the Commission we will still do a lot of engagements with the parties”.

Parliament has already approved GH¢400 million for the exercise to compile a new register.

Meanwhile, the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) and some other 12 political parties have thrown their support in favour of the new register.

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The current register was compiled in 2012 and was used for the last two general and parliamentary elections in Ghana.

The same register was also used for the referendum to create new regions as well as the local government polls to elect heads of the various assemblies and unit committee members.