E.C. WARNS OF PROSECUTION

Dr. Kwadwo Afari-Gyan is the Chairman of the Electoral Commission of Ghana

By William Yaw Owusu

Thursday, 07 August 2008
ALL ineligible people who have registered in the ongoing limited voters registration exercise will be prosecuted, says the Electoral Commission (EC).

"All those who abused the electoral process must be punished and the EC will not hesitate in calling for their prosecution after this exercise," Dr Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, Chairman of the commission, said in Accra yesterday.

He was delivering the keynote address at an Institute for Democratic Governance (IDEG) forum under the theme: "Towards a peaceful and credible Election 2008".

The forum, the first in a series to be organised by IDEG, attracted participants from the various political parties, civil society organisations and youth groups, among others.

Dr Afari-Gyan said: "Those parents who are lying about the ages of their children and the politicians who are pushing minors to register should know that the commission will do a careful assessment of the exercise and call for immediate sanctions to be applied against all culprits."

He asked the public and all stakeholders, especially political parties, to help the EC to track down those involved in undermining the electoral process.

Under PNDC Law 284, a person found guilty of an election offence may be fined or imprisoned, or both. For some offences, a person may, in addition, be disqualified from voting in subsequent elections or from holding public office.

He said: "At every given moment there is an allegation of deliberate wrong-doing on the part of the EC whenever there is shortage of registration materials, but the fact is that those materials are meant for genuine and eligible voters."

Dr Afari-Gyan said the long queues being witnessed at the various registration centres are as a result of the lack of understanding that sections of the public have of the electoral system.

Long queues being witnessed at the various registration centres are as a result of the lack of understanding that sections of the public have of the electoral system.
"The majority of people who queue at the centres are those who have already registered but are there to replace their cards," he said.

He said for instance that in situations where an electoral officer was able to separate people who were at the centre to replace their cards from first time voters, it was clear that the queue for first time voters was very short.

"If we are encountering problems in the exercise we should all accept responsibility and not shift the blame to the doorstep of the EC because the EC alone cannot ensure a credible, free and fair election."

As to whether the exercise should be extended, Dr Afari-Gyan said the "political parties cannot go to the media to make that request. They should come to us so that together however, we can decide the next line of action.

"Currently, the EC does not have any problem with funds to support its operational budget. It is the developmental budget which we sometimes struggle to get from the government", he said.

Reacting to a concern as to whether the limited registration centres were not affecting the exercise, the EC chairman said, "we carefully assessed the 2,500 workstations before embarking on the registration and we made available about 1.2 million registration cards to be distributed in all the centres and if there are genuine voters we will see to them at the appropriate time."

He said to prevent the current situation of people queuing to register, the EC will work out plans in the near future to make it possible for people to register on a continuing basis saying, "we have to build our capacity to be able to do this."

He also touched on issue ranging from the roles of the commission, judiciary, political parties, media and the electorate are expected to play to ensure free , fair and credible elections.

Justice S.O. Lamptey, a retired Supreme Court judge, who chaired the function, said the time had come for all stakeholders including the political parties and the EC, to work together to ensure the enforcement Article 42 of the Constitution which deals with the representation of the people.

"At any given time the blame is put squarely on the EC even though the commission did not ask ineligible voters to participate on an electoral exercise."

Dr Emmanuel Akwetey, Executive Director of IDEG, in introductory remarks, urged political parties and actors to guard against utterances that have the tendency to undermine the peace and stability of the country.