A group by name Taxpayers union has asked the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission, Jean Mensa to provide it with details of programmes and activities that led to the decision to compile a new voters’ register.
Failure to adhere to the group’s request will result in a civil action, the group had warned.
The EC in December 2019 made public its plans to abandon its current biometric verification system and procure a new one which has a facial recognition technology.
The EC has also planned to compile a new voters’ register ahead of the 2020 general elections.
The union in a letter it wrote to Jean Mensa, and sighted by citinewsroom.com, said it is making the request pursuant to Article 21(1)(f) of the Constitution which directs that “all persons shall have the right to…information.”
“We are of the strongest conviction that all the information surrounding the matter, including particularly, the contract and the full report of the external consultants constitute information that should be made available to every taxpayer and Ghanaians,” the union stated in the letter.
The letter also requested from the commission six listed documents including, “the name(s) of the external consultants whose services you engaged in respect of the proposed new voters register as announced in your 31st December 2019 press conference. What type of consulting service did you request from them? What was the Terms of Reference (ToR) for their consultancy services?”
“We respectfully request that you provide the information requested herein within fourteen (14) days of the date of this letter, failing which you should consider this letter as the written Notice of Intention of Civil Action,” the letter added.
Read the full letter here. Letter-to-EC-Final
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