Chairman of the Peoples National Commission (PNC) Bernard Mornah is accusing the Electoral Commission of working to disenfranchise Ghanaians in rural areas.
The PNC Chairman in an interview with host of the Gold Power Drive Samuel Eshun said the modalities being employed in the ongoing limited voter registration exercise do not favour Ghanaians in rural areas because of the timing and the cost element involved.
According to him the timing and location of the exercise requires that residents of rural communities have to choose between tending to their farms in the rainy season and spending days at District Electoral Offices in the hope that they will be registered and placed on the voters roll.
The PNC Chairman’s comments come in the wake of complains about the slowness of the process due to the decision of the EC to hold the exercise at its offices instead of polling stations as has always been the practice.
To make matters worse, the EC’s online registration process which has been used as justification for the decision to limit the exercise to district electoral offices has failed woefully with the EC forced to resort to the offline registration process which is typically done at the polling stations.
Bernard Mornah who has complained bitterly about the financial obligations the current exercise imposes on political parties, Members of Parliaments and aspirants says the modality adopted by the EC only favours the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP).
PNC Chairman said the exercise does not help his party whose votes usually come from rural areas.
Parties have been forced to find resources to convey potential voters from the villages to district electoral offices to ensure that they get to register.
Bernard Mornah says the EC is discouraging rural residents from registering with its insistence that they transport themselves to district capitals just to be part of the process.
Story: Sena Nombo/Radiogoldlive.com
