The Ghana Catholic Bishops’ Conference is calling on political parties not to make contributions for a new voters’ register to score political points.
The Christian body wants the various political parties to be honest and truthful as much as possible in helping the Electoral Commission come out with a register that has the backing and confidence of all.
This was captured in a statement issued by the Conference on Tuesday, October 13.
The Electoral Commission is scheduled to hold a forum to take inputs from political parties over the way forward on the current voters’ register, which is said to be bloated.
The forum is scheduled to come off at the end of this month.
“It is our hope and prayer that all stakeholders, but, most especially, political parties that have been contacted to present inputs into the exercise, will be honest and truthful in their contributions in order to enable the Electoral Commission to conduct a fair, transparent and honest exercise to win the confidence of the Ghanaian public in the register and the electoral process as a whole,” the statement signed by Most Rev. Joseph Osei-Bonsu, the President of the Conference, said.
The opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) began agitations for a new voters’ register after claiming there are at least 76,000 foreign infiltration.
Other political parties have expressed varying views with the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) calling for an audit of the register instead of an entirely new one.
“It is our prayer that every Ghanaian will mean well and contribute to make the mandate of the Electoral Commission in compiling the register of voters and revising same for a more trustworthy electoral roll especially for the 2016 general election.”
By Emmanuel Kwame Amoh|3news.com|Ghana