Chairman of the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC), Professor Stephen Adei has dismissed claims by the opposition NDC that the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission (EC), Mrs Jean Mensa is a pro-government.

Describing her as one of the most competent Ghanaians he knows, Prof. Adei however cautioned the former Executive Director of the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) against disenfranchising any Ghanaian in the 2020 polls.

The EC recently made bad headlines when the limited voter registration exercise was marred by violence and fraught with logistical problems in some parts of the country – prompting a call by the NDC to extend the exercise, which ended about a week ago.

The exercise was conducted to offer Ghanaians who have attained the age of 18 years since the last registration exercise, as well as those, who, for one reason or another, have never registered, to do so.

At the close of the exercise, there were agitations in some quarters which suggested that some people who went to the various district offices of the EC to register were unable to do so.

Speaking about the EC Chair and her work on ClassFM on Wednesday, 17 July 2019, the former Rector of the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA) said: “First of all, I knew Jean Mensa before her appointment. She is one of the most competent Ghanaians that could occupy the post. She is as good as anybody else.

“The second one is this: there must be a timeline but no Ghanaian must be disenfranchised. In fact, there should be a provision for every Ghanaian who qualifies to have a continuous registration so long as he can prove his citizenship.

“It cannot be a general, mass [registration] but one should be able to go to designated places to have them registered because I don’t think we can use a timeline to say: ‘Now, its fine, you cannot exercise your franchise until four years.’

“Not a mass one but there must be designated offices. When every child reaches 18 years, he should be able to go to a place and register; not because there’s an election coming but it’s their constitutional right”.