The Electoral Commission (EC) of Ghana on Tuesday, June 3, 2020 started piloting the compilation exercise of people on the new Voters Register in all the 16 regions across the country in the midst of the numerous threats and opposing accusations.
Veteran Ghanaian musician, Rex Omar has questioned why President Nana Akufo-Addo is focused on supporting the EC to compile a new Voters Register despite winning the previous election with over one million votes.
Speaking to Amansan Krakye in an exclusive interview on Cape Coast-based GBC Radio Central, the veteran musician was baffled by the fact that compiling of a new Voters Register will disenfranchise a lot of Ghanaians who don’t have a Ghana card or passport.
Why should I support the compilation of a new Voters Register because at the end of the day you’ve already taken our bio data for the previous voters register. As for me I don’t even have the Ghana card because the way it was done it was very difficult to get it. Bio data doesn’t change because my fingerprints will continue to be the same till I die, he said.
So if you’ve taken that bio data already why do you want to throw it away and replace it with a new one?. What will that give you? We in the NDC are not saying that if there is problem with the old Voters Register it shouldn’t be corrected but what we are against is throwing everything away to start everything afresh. It does not make sense because the bio data is the same.
If you throw all away and start again it’s the same information that you’ll get. My fingerprints, my blood, my eyes will never change so this exercise is just a waste of public funds. We have almost five or six months to election 2020 and we have not even started with voter registration exercise. To the extent that they are insisting that only a passport or Ghana card should be accepted for registration, it doesn’t make sense.
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In this country what does one need to prove that indeed that person is a citizen. If you’re going to do passport, you are required to bring your birth certificate. But you can’t use this birth certificate to register for a voter ID meanwhile the passport that you want to accept was gotten through the same birth certificate. Does this make sense? We as Ghanaians need to speak the truth and put partisan politics aside when it comes to such issues.
How many Ghanaians in the villages have a passport or the Ghana card? The same voter’s ID card that we used in voting to make Nana Akufo-Addo the President, now you’re saying you will no longer accept it, what are you trying to do?. You are trying to make it difficult for as many people as possible not to register and that’s what you want to do. So now you are trying to force yourself on us. If you’ve worked hard and you think Ghanaians will vote for you again, what are you afraid of? He fumed.