<<Print>>

Former Member of Parliament for Zebila, John Ndebugri, has condemned what he describes as undue pressure on the Electoral Commission to compel it to create a new voters register.

His exasperation follows comments made by Ghana’s two former presidents supporting calls for a new voters register proposal.

The campaign for a new register started when the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) petitioned the EC with what it described as evidence to show that the current register is not just bloated with minors, but with names of over 70,000 Togolese nationals.

Pro-opposition pressure group, Let My Vote Count Alliance (LMVCA), later waded into the campaign with several news conferences and an attempt to picket at the offices of the EC, which ended abruptly following violent clashes with the police.

The group, which is still committed to picket at the offices of the EC in another demonstration, is now seeking the support of influential personalities ostensibly to convince the EC.

After paying a courtesy call on former President Jerry John Rawlings who only urged the EC to work towards a credible register for 2016, they also visited former President Kufuor.

Mr. Kufuor was however straightforward in his utterances as he unflinchingly called for a new voters register.

But speaking on Citi Eyewitness News on Thursday, the former legislator and private legal practitioner, John Ndebugri, said the pressure on the EC is needless.

“I am amazed at the way things are going because Article 46 of the Constitution is very clear; the Electoral Commission is not subject to any control by any individual or authority, so this business of going to former presidents and asking them to intervene I don’t know what it is meant to do. It is meant to invite them to act unconstitutionally. This business of stampeding the EC to introduce a new register and so on is blatant interference contrary to Article 46 of the constitution; that is my view. I don’t think that a former president has the right to decree that article 46 should be set aside.”

Mr. Ndeburi added there is no need for the hullabaloo about the register particularly when the EC has collated proposals and is already working to reach a consensus on the matter.

“The commission has taken proposals and is processing them so what’s this business of going to former presidents and all that…are they saying that you can just go to a former President to decree that Article 46 should be set aside," he queried.