Former New Patriotic Party (NPP) Member of Parliament for Tema East and Deputy Minister of Transport, Titus Nii Kwartei Glover has criticised the decision of the Electoral Commission to hold its limited voter’s registration exercise at only its district offices.
According to him, the decision of the EC does not make sense because it would only lead to a lot of eligible Ghanaian voters being disenfranchised.
Speaking during a panel discussion on the Good Morning Ghana programme, on Wednesday, September 13, 2023, Titus-Glover explained that some communities in Ghana, particularly those in rural areas, are too far from the EC’s district offices which makes it nearly impossible for eligible voters to register.
“Hon Paul Essien sent me this, he said ‘in Jomoro we have to travel 60 kilometres, 80 kilometres, 100 kilometres and sometimes 120 kilometres to the district capital and out of the 4 electoral areas only four are close’. So, we want to deny all these people.
“This action of the EC, I see it as a national security matter because it is about elections where peoples’ votes matter. If you are travelling from Bole to Bamboi if you have a strong car it can take you about an hour and a half. If you don’t have a strong car and you are using a normal Trotro, how are you going to register?
“And people live in hamlets, in the villages, way, way back, some close to the border at Côte d’Ivoire and you have to come to Bole and register,” he said.
Titus-Glover, a former deputy minister for transport, therefore, called on the Chairperson of the EC, Jean Mensa, to rescind the decision to hold the limited voter registration exercise only at district offices of the EC.
“All these things are not good signs that is why I making this passionate appeal to my sister, that ‘please change your style’,” he said.
