The Inter-Party Resistance against the New Voter Register (IPRAN), has said the Electoral Commission (EC) is employing crude Machiavellian tactics with its plan to compile a new register of voters ahead of this year’s elections.

At a press conference on Tuesday, 26 May 2020, IPRAN said its attention was drawn to a publication on Monday, 16 March 2020 relating to the matter of the EC filing an amendment of CI91, particularly Section 1(3), to exclude the Voter ID card as part of the primary identification documents required by an eligible voter to go through voter registration ahead of the 2020 General Elections.

“It is disappointing and disheartening to note that that was the first time political parties in the Resistance had heard about this blatant attempt at political bigotry by the EC to exclude close to about 10 million eligible voters from registering to vote in this year’s general elections.

“It is also important to emphasise that the EC surreptitiously employed a crude Machiavellian tactic in this mischievous agenda by circumventing long-standing laid-down procedures of allowing IPAC to discuss such an important matter such as amending an electoral law.

“In fact, such matters are first discussed by a committee of experts at IPACs sub-Committee of Legal Affairs and then later brought for further deliberation and adopted by IPAC before filing same at the Subsidiary Legislation Committee of Parliament.   

“It is the considered view of the Resistance that restricting the voter registration identification requirements to only Ghana Card, Passport and the vouching process, has the potential of robbing over 10a million Ghanaians of their inalienable rights to vote.

“This is as a result of the fact that even though available evidence from the Ghana Statistical Service shows that 17,749,005 Ghanaians are eligible to vote in the 2020 General Elections, only a paltry number of about 6.5 million of these eligible Ghanaian voters may have successfully enrolled for the Ghana card and just about 1 million to 1.5 million of eligible voters have the Ghanaian passport, leaving close to about 10 million Ghanaians to go through a rather tedious and less reliable option of the vouching process.”