The New Patriotic Party (NPP) says it will kick against attempts by the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) to register unqualified persons in the ongoing limited voter registration exercise.
The exercise, which began last week, has recorded some nasty incidents with a number of them ending in violent clashes, especially among supporters of the NDC and the NPP.
At a press conference in Accra yesterday, acting General Secretary John Boadu accused the NDC of “unleashing thugs and machomen to cause violence and intimidate potential registrants in some of our strongholds.”
That, he said, “appears to be a carefully tailored strategy by the NDC to reduce the number of voters in our strongholds,” insisting that “some of these criminal acts are being perpetrated in some cases with the involvement of government officials, including regional ministers and DCEs.”
He cited a number of cases to buttress his point.
“For instance, NDC-hired machomen on motorbikes, and wielding machetes, scattered EC registration machines at the Gyenyase registration centre in the Asokwa Constituency of the Ashanti Region. At the Council Hall in the APIOSO Electoral Area in the Ejura-Sekyedumasi Constituency, NDC-hired thugs resorted to throwing stones to disrupt the registration exercise and to scare away potential registrants. A similar incident happened at Banda in the Brong-Ahafo Region where the MP for the area brought in machomen to intimidate our polling agents in the full glare of the police who failed to take any action.”
Mr Boadu, who is also the National Organiser of the NPP, accused the police of failing to take any action – a situation he said encourages hoodlums to further subject their (NPP) agents to severe beatings and drive them away from the registration centres, with the exercise going on without the party’s agents.
Another Incident
He talked of another incident at Kukuom in the Asunafo South Constituency of the Brong-Ahafo Region where Eric Opoku, the Regional Minister, is alleged to have brought in thugs to attack the NPP constituency executives, saying, “Some were beaten while others were given death threats. In fact, our polling agents also had to run for their dear lives while the registration went on.
“A similar incident took place at Ntotrosu in the Asutifi North Constituency where the wife of the DCE for the area brought machomen in her car to the registration centre to beat up any NPP person found around. Even the MP for the area was not spared the attacks, for which he was rushed to hospital for treatment.”
Minors
Aside that, the acting General Secretary claimed, “The NDC has been making frantic efforts to get minors onto the voter register. These minors are bussed to the registration centres with known NDC local officials leading them.
“It is, however, instructive to bring to the fore that in most cases, these efforts have been resisted and foiled by the local people who are familiar with these kids and are determined to ensure that the change agenda is not thwarted by any foul play.”
Foreigners
In the case of alleged attempts at registering foreign nationals, Mr John Boadu indicated, “The NDC is seeking all means to get some foreigners registered in the ongoing exercise in the face of ‘obvious rejection’ by the electorate.”
That, he said, was mostly happening in the border towns of Western and the Volta Regions.
SHS Students
“Aware that the disgruntled youth of the country will reject their government in the upcoming elections, members of the NDC have been seeking to prevent SHS students who have turned 18 years from taking part in the exercise,” John Boadu claimed.
He recalled that “one such attempt happened at Abetifi in the Eastern Region, where students of Abetifi Presby SHS were being prevented from registering.”
That “led to serious misunderstanding between the NDC youth organiser and EC officers.”
The NPP has therefore served notice, “We will not allow any group of people to continue to employ dubious means to get names of unqualified people, especially foreigners, into the voter register.
“We expect the Electoral Commission to ensure that they discharge their duties in accordance with the regulations guiding the ongoing registration exercise and take all the appropriate steps to prevent a situation where a potential voter could be robbed of his or her civic right to take part in the upcoming general election through no fault of theirs.”
Position
According to the NPP National Organiser, “We are prepared to do everything possible to ensure the success of the ongoing exercise. We are very worried about the lukewarm attitude of some of the security agencies in allowing obvious wrongdoings and criminal acts to take place at the registration centres.
“We are particularly worried about what can be expected in the November general election, if we can witness such scale of violence and intimidation being masterminded by officials of government and being unleashed in the full glare of the Police.”
The party has therefore entreated the security agencies, especially the Ghana Police Service, “to rise up to the occasion by checking the naked abuse of power by officials of the NDC government who are encouraging lawlessness at the registration centres with gross impunity.”
Mr John Boadu warned, “If the lawlessness is not checked now, we fear the November general election will be chaotic and lead the nation on a dangerous path.”
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