The New Patriotic Party (NPP) has hinted of a worrying trend in the ongoing limited registration exercise which is likely to translate into chaos in the November 7 polls if the security agencies do not take action immediately.
Addressing a news conference in Accra yesterday, Acting General Secretary of Party, John Boadu, pointed accusing fingers at the NDC for hiring thugs and Macho men to cause violence and intimidate potential registrants in some of NPP’s strongholds, to reduce the number of voters.
What seem to worry the NPP the most was that “these obvious criminal acts are being perpetrated in some cases with the involvement of government officials, including Regional Ministers and DCE’s”
Citing instances, John Boadu mentioned Gyenyase Registration centre in the Asokwa Consistency of the Ashanti Region, where NDC-hired Machomen on motorbikes, and wielding machetes, scattered EC registration machines.
“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”, the acting General Secretary stated, adding another occurrence at the Council Hall in the APIOSO Electoral Area in the Ejura-Sekyedumasi constituency.
At Kukuom in the Asunafo South constituency, John Boadu said constituency executives had to run for their lives given that the Brong-Ahafo Regional Minister, Hon Eric Opoku, of sending Machomen to attack them and threaten them as well.
“With the Police failing to take any action, the Machomen 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”, he narrated.
Cataloguing some of the Party’s concerns, the Ag. General Secretary mentioned wrong dates identified on ID cards, violence and intimidation of registrants with government officials’ involvement, and the continued attempts at registering foreigners and minors, among others.
Citing instances, Mr. John Boadu, who is also National Organiser of the NPP, referred to cases where issued Voter ID cards bore the date “April 27th, 2016”, even though the exercise commenced on “April 28, 2016”, thus invalidating such ID cards.
He also expressed deep worry at the frantic efforts by the NDC to get minors and foreigners onto the Voters’ Register by assigning senior Party Officials to bus them to registration centers, and impress on EC Officials to have their names put on the voters register.
According to Mr. John Boadu,, most of these malpractices were happening in areas perceived to be strongholds of the Opposition NPP, and were happening in the full glare of the police, who almost always, fail to take action.
Despite the many NDC-sponsored acts of intimidation and electoral malpractices that have characterized the on-going limited registration exercise NPP’s, John Boadu stated, that the NPP was determined to ensure that the exercise proceeds smoothly, and ends successfully.
According to him while the NPP was worried about the scale of violence and intimidation being masterminded by NDC government officials, and unleashed in the full glare of the Police, the NPP was not going to shirk its responsibility of ensuring that the voters’ register to be used in the November 7th election, would produce results, reflective of the people’s choice.
He therefore called on the security agencies, especially the Ghana Police Service, to rise up to their responsibility, by checking the naked abuse of power by NDC government officials, warning, that should the people lose confidence in the Police as an impartial enforcer of the law in the on-going exercise, it could be recipe for total chaos come November 7th, as the people would be bent on protecting the sanctity of their franchise, their own way.
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