Law lecturer and Dean of the University of Professional Studies, Accra (UPSA) Law School has expressed worry about the posture of the Electoral Commission (EC) regarding the voter’s registration exercise, saying, “Anybody can go to court and gets an injunction ”.
According to Ernest Kofi Abotsi, the EC is a central referee and therefore must harness the consultative process and bring on board all the actors so that there is confidence in the process in order to avoid a legal tussle
The EC organized a pilot registration exercise for two days in the past week, as preparation towards the conduct of a new voter register, beginning from the final week of June.
However, some political actors including the largest opposition NDC and some members of the PNC including its Chairman, Bernard Mornah have opposed the new voters register.
But Mr Abotsi speaking on News File he said: “The EC is a referee and as a referee and I think there must be confidence in its conduct. The whole perception issue of consultation and the whole issue of confidence building and bringing people on board is to reinforce that perception confidence”
“So, the EC may even have power or authority in its work. But I think it is imperative that the EC harnesses the consultative process and bring on board all the actors so that there is confidence in the process”.
He added that “I think that the dissipation does not help or aid in the perceive neutrality and the referee character of the EC. I think that there is the need for further consultations and I hope they will open up.”
“Moreover “I think any [EC] tendency to operate the illegal way is likely to result in a ‘cartelistic’ to undermine everything we have.”
“We have the peace bodies led by the Peace Council, we have all kinds of CSOs including CODEO, and we have the political parties-the interparty advisory committee and all that. We have all these bodies that act and speak to each other together with the EC as the key player, as the central referee in all these. We have all these parties that talk to each. Let’s reach a compromise”, he emphasised.
