The opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) is accusing the Electoral Commission and the incumbent National Democratic Congress (NDC), of frustrating persons wishing to register in the ongoing limited voter registration, particularly in their stronghold regions.
According to the NPP, the two appear to have conspired to prevent and intimidate people in the Ashanti and Eastern Regions from registering.
[contextly_sidebar id=”aWjI1hWYjagmfzciwxMoUbfXZ4YEVYVE”]Addressing a news conference in Accra today [Tuesday], Acting General Secretary of the NPP, John Boadu, said that the party will resist any form of intimidation in the ongoing exercise.
The Electoral Commission last Thursday began the exercise to register new voters in the country.
There have been series of violent activities recorded in several registration centres in the country but the EC has called for calm.
John Boadu at the news conference recounted some incidents they believe were orchestrated by the NDC in a bid to disenfranchise persons in their strongholds.
The use of thugs
“A very unfortunate development in the ongoing registration exercise is the unleashing of thugs and macho men to cause violence and intimidate potential registrants in some of our strong holds. This appears to be a carefully tailored strategy by the NDC to reduce the number of voters in our strongholds and these obvious criminal acts are being perpetrated in some cases with the involvement of government officials including regional ministers and DCEs.”
The NPP acting General Secretary said in one of the registration centres in the Asokwa Constituency in the Ashanti Region, “NDC hired macho men on motorbikes who wielded machetes and scattered the EC registration machines.”
“At the Council hall in the Apeosu electoral area in the Ejura-Sekyedumase constituency, NDC hired thugs resorted to throwing stones to disrupt the registration exercise and to scare away potential registrants.”
“A similar incident happed in Banda where the MP of the area brought in macho men to intimidate our polling agents in the full glare of the police who failed to take action as usual. With the police failing to take any action, the macho men were encouraged further to subject our agents to severe beatings and further drove them away from the registration centre with the EC officials going ahead with the registration without our agents. At Kokum in the Asunafo South constituency in the Brong Ahafo Region, the regional Minister, Eric Opoku, brought in macho men to attack our constituency executives,” John Boadu stated.
Wrong dates on ID cards
On the wrong dates on some of the ID cards recorded on the first day of the registration, the NPP said “it took the vigilance of our agents in the affected areas to identify the anomaly for the needed rectification.”
“…But for that action, many potential voters would have been carrying invalid ID cards which would have prevented them from exercising their franchise in the November general elections and incidentally, this anomaly took place at only the strong holds of the NPP precisely the Ashanti Region. This same event occurred in the 2012 election where a whole community in the Bekwai Constituency were disenfranchised because by the time they got to the polling station, their names were not on the register and I think that it is a concern that the responses we are getting from the Electoral Commission is not convincing at all,” he added.
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By: Godwin A. Allotey & Sammi Wiafe/citifmonline.com/Ghana
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