he Inter-Party Resistance Against New Voter Register will hold its third protest dubbed ‘Wɔkpɛnɛɛ’ demonstration on February 4, 2020.

This will consist of a march to the headquarters of the Electoral Commission (EC) in Accra as it continues its opposition to the compilation of a new voters’ register.

The group resumed its suspended protest last week after lambasting the Electoral Commission for announcing a date for the compilation of a new register despite a planned meeting with the EC’s Eminent Advisory Committee.

Addressing the press earlier on Wednesday, the Chairman of the People’s National Convention, Bernard Mornah, noted that although the coalition will attend the scheduled meeting with the Eminent Advisory Committee with misgivings, they will do so “with an open mind.”

He also demanded that the meeting be given some form of live coverage for the public.

“In order to curb any doubt, we insist on live coverage of the meeting since it is a matter of public interest…Secondly, we insist on the proper public forum where all political parties and the pro and anti-new register [supporters] will get the opportunity to present their views to the public,” Mr. Mornah added.

The group has already held a protest in Tamale dubbed Tikusayi demo and another one in Kumasi known as the Yennpini demo.

It resumed the protests after the EC announced a date for mass registration despite a planned meeting with the Eminent Advisory Committee of the EC over the raging controversy.

The group also accused the commission of showing bad faith by moving forward with modalities for the controversial new voter register ahead of a meeting with its Eminent Advisory Committee on Thursday.

Why the protests

The EC plans to abandon its current biometric verification system and procure a new one which has facial recognition technology.

The commission wants to do with all forms of manual verification of voters.

As part of this, it also plans to compile a new voters’ register which has been assigned a budget of GHS 390 million.

The EC has announced April 18, 2020, as the date to begin compiling the new register.

A provisional version of the register is expected to be ready in June.

Source: Citi