Some political parties are protesting a move by the Police command to grt recruits added to the list of persons who will be participating in the special voting exercise for this year’s elections although the period for the compilation of the list has ended.
A memo intercepted by the citifmonline.com indicated the Ghana Police Service is collaborating with the Electoral Commission (EC) to add the more names of Police officers and recruits to the special voters’ list.
The exercise for the creation of the special voters’ list ended on October 28; 42 days ahead of the December election as stipulated by law. The memo directed Commanders in the Service to liaise with EC officials to add more names to the list.
But some political parties who have described the move as illegal and have called for an emergency Inter-party advisory committee meeting to discuss the issue.
The General Secretary of the People’s National Congress (PNC), Attik Mohammed in an interview on the Eyewitness News said, “we find it an extremely unacceptable” that the EC would give the impression to the Police service that more names could be added to the list even though window for such additions has been closed.
He added that the development was a “recipe for crisis” for the country’s upcoming polls. “Once you allow one person to add, it means that the others can also make a case that, we want to be added so they should be added.
This offends the very regulation we are using to conduct this year’s elections.” Attik Mohammed expressed doubt Police recruits needed to be added to the list of special voters because according to him, they played no special roles during the elections.
He called on the Electoral Commission to ignore any such dealing with the Police Service to ensure a smooth electoral process. He further called for an emergency multi-stakeholder meeting with the EC to address the issue.
Meanwhile, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) expressed disappointment the EC was engaging the Police service in such an action without consulting the various political parties.
The party’s campaign chairman, Peter Mac-Manu said that the additions, if carried out will cause disturbances at the various polling stations. He stated that the NPP had directed its agents to challenge anyone whose name was not on the party’ copy of the voters’ register list.
He noted that the party was expecting an Inter-Party Advisory Committee meeting later this week to express its concerns.
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