General News of Saturday, 14 December 2019
Source: citinewsroom.com
2019-12-14
Legal Practitioner, Yaw Oppong
The Electoral Commission’s (EC) plans to procure a new biometric register is needless, Legal Practitioner, Yaw Oppong has said.
Mr. Oppong believes the EC should channel its energy towards getting a credible system of verifying prospective voters rather than procuring a new biometric register.
“We should concentrate on getting one system of verification. Once we do that we will reduce this procurement. We need to ensure that we complete the registration process and avoid all these. I think it is so needless.”
A few days ago, the National Democratic Congress (NDC), the People’s National Congress (PNC) together with three other political parties walked out of a meeting with the Electoral Commission.
The United Front Party, the Eagle Party, and the All People’s Congress were also part of the walkout.
According to the NDC, the EC deceived them into the meeting only for them to realise that they were there to witness the demonstration of software for a new biometric register, which they are opposed to.
The National Democratic Party has on countless times disagreed with the introduction of the new biometric system.
It is for this reason that its officers walked out of the meeting with the Electoral Commission on Tuesday.
Explaining why they left the meeting, the Director of Elections for the NDC, Elvis Afriyie Ankrah claimed that the parties had not discussed the issue exhaustively enough and had made the concerns known in previous IPAC meetings.
He recalled an invitation for emergency IPAC meeting on November 25 where the issue of a new register came up though it was not on the meeting agenda.
The parties were asked to bring experts to discuss the procurement for the new register at another emergency meeting on December 2.
The NDC again raised concerns with it but still participated in the discussion, Mr. Afriyie Ankrah narrated.
“Our IT people together with other political parties raised counterfactuals and proved to them that there was no need for a new biometric register and we stated cogent reasons.”
