An alleged attempt by the Electoral Commission to manipulate the ongoing biometric voters registration exercise to the electoral advantage of the ruling National Democratic Congress through inflation of figures of registrants in the party�s strongholds has been exposed.
Through the vigilance of the NPP, it has been detected that figures forwarded to the EC�s headquarters from the Ejura-Sekyedumase constituency in the Ashanti region for the first six days of the registration exercise was over bloated by over 2,000.
The ruling NDC won the Ejura-Sekyedurase seat in the 2008 election with a margin of some 2,000 votes, and indications are clear that the party will lose the seat to the NPP in the December polls.
While the NPP challenged the wide disparities in the figures, which was admitted by the District Director of the EC, Anthony Egegol, who attributed it to �technical challenges�, the NDC raised no concern.
This has left many with the suspicion of a grand design between the EC and the NDC to rig the December polls in the constituency in favour of the ruling party.
Credible information available to the New Statesman indicates that figures from 25 out of the 27 registration centres sent to Accra were different from those that were certified at the centres by the agents of the various political parties.
Some of the registration centres that recorded the abnormal increment in the figures included Dromakuma L/A Primary School, Asuogya Temporal Booth and Kasei L/A Primary School.
During the first three days of the exercise at the Dromakuma L/A Primary School registration centre, a total of 298 were certified but the figure the electoral officer sent to the headquarters was 610.
At the Asuogya Provisional Booth registration centre, a total number of 126 registrants were recorded but the figure forwarded to the headquarters was 220. On the second day at the same registration centre, a total number of 57 registrants were recorded but the figure sent to the headquarters was 137.
Even though a total number of 245 registrants were recorded in the first three days of the exercise at the Kasei L/A Primary School, the electoral officer forwarded a figure of 399 to the headquarters.
Also, in the second three days of the exercise in the same centre, the number of registrants recorded was 369 but the final figure sent to the headquarters was a whooping 706.
Meanwhile, the NPP parliamentary candidate, Mohammed Salisu Bamba, has reaffirmed the party�s resolve to remain vigilant at all times and use every legitimate means to annex the seat from the NDC.
�We are not going to sit down for them to have their way. Just as our vigilance has led to this discovery of huge disparities in the registered figures, we will monitor the entire process with eagle�s eyes to foil any attempt to manipulate the electoral process,� he told the New Statesman yesterday.
Mr Salifu Bamba finds it difficult to see the development as accidental since it was perpetrated in areas considered to be strongholds of the NDC.
What even worries him most is the fact that even though �the EC officials confirmed the figures they sent out were incorrect, they could not offer any proper and tangible explanation.�
He added: �We in the NPP are also surprised that the NDC saw nothing problematic about the huge disparities in the figures. But we can assure them that come December 7, we will take the seat from them, and this is something they know and that is why they are desperate and would want to employ dirty tricks to outwit us.�
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