The use of thugs<\/strong><\/p>\n\u201cA 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
The NPP acting General Secretary said in one of the registration centres in the Asokwa Constituency in the Ashanti Region, \u201cNDC hired macho men on motorbikes who\u00a0wielded\u00a0machetes and scattered the EC registration machines.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAt 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cA 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,\u201d John Boadu stated.<\/p>\n
Wrong dates on ID cards<\/strong><\/p>\nOn the wrong dates on some of the ID cards recorded on the first day of the registration, the NPP said \u201cit took the vigilance of our agents in the affected areas to identify the anomaly for the needed rectification.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201c…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,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
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By: Godwin A. Allotey & Sammi Wiafe\/citifmonline.com\/Ghana
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