Wuogon register not bloated – EC clarifies

The Electoral Commission (EC) has debunked claims by the main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) that the voter roll to be used for the Ayawaso West Wuogon Constituency by-election scheduled for Thursday, 31 January 2019, has been bloated by over 1,000 names.

The NDC, in a statement, accused the EC of being behind the bloating.

In the statement, the NDC indicated that its attempt to access the proxy list, transfer list, and special voters list have yielded no results.

But the EC has described the allegations as “untrue”.

The EC explained that the NDC requested a copy of the said list late on Friday, 26 January 2019 when the activities at the Commission had winded down.

“It is significant to note that the author of the press release has unlimited access to the chairman responsible for Operations and could have reached him without much effort. Letters of such nature go through a process of recording at the registry before they are brought to the attention of the addressees. Requests for confidential information require the approval of the chairperson or deputy chairpersons before same are released,” the EC explained in a press release.

The Commission added that while it believes in responding in a timely manner to requests from the political parties, it will not compromise its processes and laid-down systems for any entity.

The EC further said it finds it surprising that rather than approaching the Commission to discuss the issue, the NDC chose to go public, accusing the election management body of bloating the register to favour a particular political party.

“These allegations are baseless and unfounded and we call on the public to disregard them,” the release stated.

The EC assured the public that the Ayawaso West Wuogon register is clean.