<<Print>>Pollster, Ben Ephson, has dismissed calls by the New Patriotic Party (NPP) for a new voters’ register, insisting that a new register will not guarantee credible polls next year.
Mr Ephson insists that NPP's claims that the current voters’ register is flawed may not even be informed by proper analysis. “One reason why I don’t think a new register will cure the problem [of a bloated voters’ register] is that the biometric [voting] system cannot identify by fingerprint those who are minors”, he said.
He was alluding to the fact the some people on the voters' roll have been clearly identified as minors.
Mr Ephson - who is also the Editor of the Daily Dispatch newspaper - was contributing to a discussion on calls for a new voters’ register on Joy FM and MultiTV’s Newsfile, Saturday.
“The key to effective elections is having well-educated polling agents”, Mr Ephson said.
The opposition NPP has been pushing for the compilation of a new register, contending that the current one is so flawed it cannot be relied on credible for elections next year.
The NPP General Secretary, Kwabena Agyepong, has been seeking the support of smaller political parties in his campaign to have the current voters' register replaced and has gotten endorsements from the People's National Convention and the Convention People's Party.
The last Presidential general elections in 2012 ended at the Supreme Court, with the NPP accusing the Electoral Commission of presiding over an election fraught with irregularities -- minors voting in some instances.
The opposition party believes compiling a new register is a first step towards enhancing the integrity and credibility of the 2016 polls.
“Nothing will prevent minors from voting”, Mr Ephson stressed, and even disagreed that the current voters’ register is bloated.
“The 2000 population census stated that Ghanaians above 18 years were 50%, so they take the 2010 population figure of 25 million and divide it by two - that is about 12.5 million Ghanaians being above 18 years - then they take the 2012 voter population of 14 million, you subtract 12.5 million and they get a little over 1.5 million” and say this means the register is bloated by about 1.5 million votes.
Mr Ephson, however, maintains that these permutations have not taken into consideration the annual population growth rate of 2.5 percent per annum.
He holds the view that when the appropriate calculations are done, it will mean
the current voters’ register has captured about 99.7% of registerable voters – or persons above 18 years – which he admits is unusually high.
“I will agree when one says that almost 98% is a bit high, but it is not bloated”, he maintains.
The NPP's push for a new register has been facing stiff opposition especially from the NDC.
The General Secretary of the governing NDC, Johnson Asiedu Nketia, who was also on the Newsfile programme said any attempt to replace the current voters’ register may open the floodgates for the register to be compromised the more.
Asiedu Nketia said it was generally agreed before the 2012 poll that there were minors on the register used for the presidential and parliamentary elections.
He, however, maintained that “as we sit here today we do not have a better way to stop minors from registering.”
He argued that the same motivation that led to political parties sponsoring minors to register to vote still exist and compiling a fresh register will only create avenues for more minors to be registered.