Pressure group Movement For Joint Action (MJA), in collaboration with Coalition For Joint Action (CJA), will next week Wednesday, 21 October, stage an anticipated massive demonstration dubbed, ‘New Credible Voter Register’ in Koforidua, the Eastern Regional capital.
The proposed demonstration would be targeting the Electoral Commission (EC) over the voter register, which is said to be bloated and for that matter, incredible.
The leader of the group, Pharm Silas Agyekum, addressing a press confab in Koforidua on Thursday, hinted that their demand for the compilation of a new credible voter register is to guarantee peaceful elections in 2016 and also to give the people in the region the opportunity to express their views on the issue.
‘Democratic electoral processes, we believe, should be inclusive and transparent, designed to promote public confidence. To achieve this, many African countries, including Ghana in 2007, signed on to regional and global instruments that promote democratic principles, including the AU Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance; ECOWAS Protocol on Democracy and Good Governance and Southern African Development Community Principles and Guidelines Governing Democratic Elections, though political will of member states to implement these instruments is weak,’ Mr Silas Agyekum posited.
According to him, to ensure increased participation in the electoral process, the EC should engage the major stakeholders on a regular basis, providing them with information governing the process.
‘To mitigate pre- and post-electioneering conflict, the EC should ensure that political parties adhere to the standard prescribed code of conduct through the application of appropriate enforcement mechanisms and to uphold cross-party cooperation as an important signal to the public that political parties are willing to compete peacefully and fairly and work jointly on issues of national interest,’ he underscored.
He urged the EC to endeavour to establish reliable consultations with political parties to help build trust in the process to prevent election violence.
Pharm Silas stated that the democratic and legal framework for elections should ensure the independence of the Electoral Commission.
He claimed that the MJA was of the view that the haste with which the EC disclosed its decision to employ the services of an IT expert to help it (EC) respond to some technical issues raised by the NPP in its petition, without subjecting the decision to effective dialogue, collaboration, consultation and in a more inclusive and transparent manner to help build trust in the process and in the commission, further dents the already denigrated corporate image.
However, to affirm the groups’ position on a new credible voter register, the members are calling on all well-meaning Ghanaians, civil society groups, organized labour, opinion leaders, public and private institutions and individuals, to join the proposed demonstration.
By Daily Guide
