A leading member of the communication team of the New Patriotic Party, Mr Nana Akomea has called on the Electoral Commission of Ghana to publish the names of the 30,000 registered voters who have disqualified from participating in the December polls.
The former Legislator made this call while contributing to the Good Morning Ghana show of Metro TV on Friday.
Mr Akomea argued that transparency is an important element of a functioning democracy.
“The anchor of democracy is transparency. You must be even handed; nothing should be hidden. If you are going to be obscure about democracy, then what can you be opened about? So if names have been disqualified, they should be published”, he argued.
In the spirit of consensus building, Mr Samuel Nartey George, the Member of Parliament of Ningo Prampram also added that the failure of the Electoral Commission to publish the names expunged from the register could disenfranchised voters as they may have no opportunity to seek for redress at the court.
He indicated that if the EC fails to publish those names ahead of the December polls, individuals whose names have been deleted from the register may show up on the day of election only to realize that their names have been deleted from the register.
“The EC knows the 30,000 names now, they should publish it so that the people can have the opportunity to challenge the EC if they think that their disenfranchising has been done illgally”, he stated.
The Electoral Commission has indicated that about 30,000 people have been disqualified from participating in the 2020 election. The EC said they cannot vote because they have engaged in infractions.
