EC Chairperson, Jean Mensa, told the press on Wednesday, August 12, 2020, that the challenge process should help to rid the register of these names and make it clean for the upcoming elections.
“We are aware that a number of minors have found their way into the register. We are confident that the challenge processes initiated at all district centres will unearth these illegal persons and rid the register of those who do not qualify to there…
“We are confident that the register that will be used for the 2020 elections will be a wholly-owned Ghanaian enterprise reflecting qualified Ghanaians and Ghanaians only,” she assured.
The EC boss also revealed that at the end of the 36-day mass voters registration, 16, 963, 306 persons have been listed in the new electoral.
The admission by the Jean Mensa-led EC that the new register has the names of minors listed to vote in the December 7, 2020, comes after the EC promised to compile one of the cleanest registers in Ghana.
It also comes shortly after the Commission recently praised itself for a successful exercise, despite resistance before the start of the exercise.
Think tank, IMANI Africa, said in a recent report on the mass voters registration exercise that the EC has achieved nothing with the exercise.
The days leading to the start of the compilation of the new electoral roll, the EC met with stiff resistance from civil society organisations and the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC).
The EC was advised to use the old register because the mass registration exercise was too close to the 2020 polls and will come at a cost too high for the country.
Jean Mensa is EC Chairperson