John Dramani Mahama, former president and flagbearer of opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) has challenged a proposal by the Electoral Commission of Ghana to compile a new voters’ register.
Mr Mahama’s challenge with the proposal, which he pointed out at the 38th Anniversary celebration of the 31 December Revolution at Winneba in the Central region is grounded on two premises – cost and waste.
The former president who was addressing a gathering of cadres at the ceremony said it was wasteful for the EC to decide to compile a new register when the existing one was barely seven years old.
On the issue of cost, he noted the a new compilation of a voters’ register would cost the nation 444 million Ghana Cedis when a simple upgrade of the existing register could cost as less as a little over 200 million Ghana Cedis.
Below is a transcription of what the former President said about the EC’s decision:
When you have a voters register that is only seven years old and you have a data base valuably collected that cost you money to build and you say I am going to throw that new database away and build a new database based on a new biometric register at 444 million Ghana Cedis when you could have upgraded the old system at a little over 200 million Ghana Cedis, that is the kind of waste our people are angry with.