Member of parliament of the South Dayi constituency Rockson Nelson Dafeamekpor says the new Constitutional Instrument provided by the Electoral Commission might be a tool to disenfranchise some electorates found in places that are not government strongholds.
The new Constitutional Instrument CI by the EC provides that only district offices and selected polling stations can be used for registering voters. This means that the Electoral Commission possess the discretionary powers to determine which polling centre can be used for voter registration. Therefore, if they want to be politically unfavourable can declare one registration centre in one district and so many centres in another.
However, the existing legislation on registration by the EC, which are CIs 91 and 126, registration centres are identified in various polling centres in the various electoral areas in the constituencies in addition to the District offices.
According to the MP, ECs purpose is to allow for continuous registration, yet; there already exists provisions in the existing CI. He opines that this move by the EC is a subtle attempt to introduce another voter’s registration.
He says the National Democratic Congress will resist any attempt by the Electoral Commission to use discretionary powers to determine registration centres.
