3 September 2008
editorial
Yesterday, we carried the call made by the Catholic Priest for Adoagyiri, Rev. Father Ignatious Amponsah, calling on the Electoral Commission (EC) to suspend the December polls and rectify all the anomalies in the voters' register. "The register is a fraud, excessively abused and cannot be trusted or used for the elections", he told a radio station in Takoradi.
The Chronicle wishes to associate itself with the call by the priest for the election to be put on hold. It will be an intellectual dishonesty for anybody to argue that all is well with the voters' register. The way the political parties, especially the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and National Democratic Congress (NDC) have criticised the recent limited voters' registration exercise, goes to confirm our position that all is not well with the register.
During and after the registration exercise, there were several reports that minors and foreigners had been allowed to register. Several petitions were filed against these supposed minors and foreigners, and the EC is yet to resolve the issues, at least to the knowledge of The Chronicle. Prior to this registration brouhaha, some of the opposition parties had also raised concerns about the genuineness of the register. Those who understand elections would agree that these are some of the basic complaints that usually lead to election violence and subsequent loss of innocent blood. Every successful election depends on a clean voters' register.
In supporting the call for the postponement of the elections, does not mean that we have disregarded constitutional matters that would arise. The constitution has set the time frame within which an election must be held to elect a new President and parliamentarians. The law is, however, made for man and not the other way round. Therefore, there can be a solution to this constitutional issue. What is needed now is for all stakeholders to agree for the postponement.
We insist that Father Amposah has raised a legitimate concern and we will be ignoring him at our own peril. As Ghana is learning from the Nigerian experience in oil management, so should we also learn from our sister countries that have been torn apart by war, as a result of electoral disputes. Our democracy has now gained international recognition, therefore everything possible must be done to protect it. No investor would come and invest in a war torn country. This is not to say that there will be war in the country but as the adage goes, to be fore warned is to be fore armed.
What has started in the North should be enough warning signal for us to do our home work very well, before going into this crucial elections.
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