A Political Scientist, Moro Yusif is calling on political parties to accept the fact that the country’s voters’ register is not their property and must stop using the register as a conduit to pursue partisan politics. This he adds contributes effectively to growing doubts about the credibility of Ghana’s voters register and the acceptance of electoral results by political actors.
Moro Yusif was commenting on the topic “Ghana’s current bloated voters register-who masterminded it and whether Ghanaians are satisfied with the Electoral Commission’s ultimate decision to clean the register instead of compiling a new one” in an interview with this reporter.
He reiterated that playing partisan politics with the compilation and final usage of the voters register is detrimental to the country’s electoral process and security.
The Supreme Court of Ghana dismissed the petition filed by the 2012 Presidential candidate of the NPP, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo; his running mate Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia and the party’s late national chairman Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey challenging the validity of John Mahama’s election on grounds that the election was rigged to favor President John Mahama. Nana Akufo-Addo wanted to be declared President on the grounds that there were gross and widespread irregularities at 10,119 polling stations and for that reason the annulment of 3,931,339 invalid votes at those polling stations would reduce President Mahama’s votes and guarantee his (Nana Akufo-Addo’s) seat at the Presidency.
President Mahama then fought back with the argument that he won the elections freely and transparently in the full glare of Ghanaians, the media, local and foreign observers.
The court determine whether or not there were statutory violations, irregularities, commissions and malpractices in the December 7 and 8, 2012 presidential poll.
It also determined whether or not those statutory violations, irregularities, omissions and malpractices (if any) affected the outcome of the presidential poll.
The political scientist commended the Electoral Commission (EC) for ultimately resolving to clean the voters register contrary to earlier suggestions by a section of society that the commission should compile a new one instead and urged all political parties to embrace the commission’s decision. “It is an autonomous body and must be allowed to implement its constitutional mandate to Ghanaians”, he pointed out.
