The Concerned Youth For Progressive Ghana; a civil society group has warned against proceeding into the 2016 elections with the current voters’ register.
A statement issued by founder of the group; Jamaludeen A Abdullah and copied to rawgist.com encourages Ghanaians to take a cue from other African countries distabilized by post-election violence and change the current register.
“Ghana’s fledgling democracy will be put to another serious scrutiny as we head towards the polls in our presidential and parliamentary elections come December 2016. We have witnessed many instances across the continent how civil war and conflicts had resulted because of electoral malpractice that went on. It is in the light of this and many others that we need to make sure all grievances from all political parties are addressed as we head towards the election 2016.”
The group is convinced that Ghanaians have “lost faith in the electoral commission due to the way and manner in which it has conducted itself over the years” and calls on the youth of Ghana to make a statement by adding their signatures to the over “300,000” signatures it has already gathered to make a case for a new voters’ register for election 2016.
Meanwhile, the ruling NDC is vehemently kicking against the creation of a new voters’ register.
Please read the full statement below:
NEW VOTERS REGISTER FOR PEACEFUL ELECTIONS IS NON NEGOTIABLE
It is an undeniable fact that Ghana remains one of the most peaceful countries in Africa which has not been destabilized by post election violence as witnessed by many African countries. This in itself does not guarantee an everlasting free election violence in the country.
Ghana’s narrowly escaped post election violence in 2012 when the elections had to be decided by the Supreme Court as a result of many malpractices that characterised the conduct of the elections. The highest Court of the land took more than eight months to settled that dispute something that could have been avoided if the electoral commission had heeded to the advice given to the electoral body by various interest groups. During the electoral petition at the Supreme Court, our electoral body was exposed to so many irregularities and its high time we right the wrongs in our electoral system. Ghana was very lucky and may not be lucky again.
Ghana’s fledgling democracy will be put to another serious scrutiny as we head towards the polls in our presidential and parliamentary elections come December 2016. We have witnessed many instances across the continent how civil war and conflicts had resulted because of electoral malpractice that went on. It is in the light of this and many others that we need to make sure all grievances from all political parties are addressed as we head towards the election 2016.
One major factor that can result in post elections violence is about the credibility of the voters register. The Supreme Court recently ruling on National Health Insurance being expunged from the requirements to register for a Voters Identity card and the recent revelations from the New Patriotic Party all goes to give credence to the demand of a new voters register.
There is no denying the fact that most Ghanaians had lost faith in the electoral commission due to the way and manner in which it has conducted itself over the years and it is in the light of this that we need to explore every avenue geared towards instilling confidence of the commission in the people again and a new voters register is the way to go.
Concerned Youth For Progressive Ghana has been going round the country to gather signatures of youths at their workplaces,homes,football parks and etc. We have so far gathered over 300,000 signatures and we are still gathering. We appeal to the youth to consider the interest of the country and our future to attest their signatures to the petition for a new and credible voter register which restore confidence in our electoral system which will go a long way to prevent post election conflicts.
We are therefore appealing to all civil societies, political parties, various stakeholders and the international bodies to add they voice to this clarion call of ensuring a new register is compiled to ensure free, fair and transparent elections come 2016
Thank you
Signed :
Founder: Jamaludeen A Abdullah: 0503274762/ 0246198919
Comm. Dir.: Opoku Mensah: 0242267214
Secretary: Nana Kwadwo Akwaa: 0246913905 /0209676413
Organiser: Nana Kofi Owusu: 0275208373
Operation: Mubashir Iddrisu: 0266037757
I.am 100% in support.
New voters register or nothing else