Three pro-opposition pressure groups on Wednesday led hundreds onto the streets of Kumasi in protest against the Electoral Commission refusal to implement recommended electoral reforms.
The demonstration was attended by hundreds of NPP supporters in the party’s stronghold region. Both young and old clad in red participated in the march which was heavily protected by the police.
Citi News’ Lauretta Timah said although the demonstration was largely against the EC, there were some placards also directed at President John Mahama.
The placards had messages that urged Ghanaians to reject Mahama in the November polls.
The Let My Vote Count Alliance, the Alliance for Accountable Governance, and the Movement for Change, The demonstration, dubbed “Baamu Yadda”, which in the Hausa dialect means “we will not agree”, was aimed at getting the EC to validate the voters’ register for the November polls as suggested by the Justice VCRAC Crabbe panel.
Convener for the group, Let My Vote Count Alliance, David Asante, told Citi News that the reluctance of the EC to validate voters on the register, which contradicts the recommendations of its own panel of experts, is only a recipe for disaster.
“The principal objective of this demonstration is to drum home the need for the Electoral Commission to take the people of Ghana serious. The EC‘s committee recommended validation and the EC came out publicly to uphold the report of the committee.
Most of the political parties who called for a new voters’ register accepted the recommendation of the committee only for the EC to do a U-turn to say the committee will not do any validation,” He said.
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By: Ebenezer Afanyi Dadzie/Citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @AfanyiDadzie