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If the Electoral Commission (EC) of Ghana is going to produce an entirely new register of voters using the old ways of registering voters, then the efforts will amount to a waste of national resources, Dr Raymond Atuguba, a senior law lecturer at the Faculty of Law, University of Ghana, has said.

There have been calls from some opposition political parties, as well as civil society and pressure groups for a new register to be compiled by the EC following claims that the roll is bloated and unfit for purpose.

Mr Abu Ramadan, a former National Youth Organiser of the People’s National Convention (PNC) and one Evans Nimako, jointly sued the EC at the Supreme Court over the credibility of the register.

The reliefs they sought from the court among others included: “A declaration that the 2012 voters’ register, which contains the names of persons, who have not established qualification to be registered, is inconsistent with Article 42 and 45 (a) and, therefore, unconstitutional, null, void, and of no effect.”

Accordingly, the apex court ordered the EC to delete the names of persons, who registered using National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) cards as a means of identification since the card had been rendered invalid for registration by the same court. The EC was ordered to re-register voters affected by the ruling of the court as far as the use of the NHIS cards as a form of national ID was concerned. The same court, also recently ordered the EC to compile a list of all those who registered with NHIS cards and present it to the court on June 29.

But Dr Raymond Atuguba, in an article titled ‘11 implications of Supreme Court’s ruling on Abu Ramadan’s case’ said if the EC heeds the calls for a new electoral roll using the same ways of registering voters, then the efforts will be a waste of resources.

“Some have argued that all these [controversies surrounding the register] would not be happening if the EC had simply compiled a new voters’ register. The assumption here is that a new register will automatically be more credible and cleaner. This is absolutely not the case. A ‘new’ register is totally different from a clean and credible register. A clean and credible register is simply not easy to achieve anywhere in the world. If we start the compilation of a new register today, it is still possible that the NDC will bring in people, including minors, from Togo and the NPP from Cote d’Ivoire to register. If this is done in their respective strongholds, where everyone, including EC officials, presiding officers, and polling station agents, is a member of their party, we may achieve an even dirtier and non-credible register.”

The former executive secretary to President John Mahama further noted: “So, simply doing a new register in the old way is a complete waste of national resources. In conclusion and for the long-term, I would suggest that we start linking our different personal and personnel databases, and there are over 100 databases in Ghana to work with, to create a national database, and use that as a control for all registrations for the purpose of voting. Then prepare a new register with the control on. The control is a first logical step before a reasonably credible and clean voters’ register can be achieved.”