PROTESTERS are to hit the streets of Takoradi on Saturday, June 18, to make a two-fold demand: that the Electoral Commission deletes names of all Ghanaians who registered to vote in the 2012 presidential election using the National Health Insurance ID cards as directed by the Supreme Court, as well as the high tariffs being charged by the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG).
Those taking part in the protest march include a group that calls itself the National Volunteers for NPP, as well as various identifiable groups in the country.
A press statement issued yesterday and signed by David Ohene Gyansah, National Secretary of Volunteers for NPP, as well as executives of the various interest groups, said: “We expect nothing but a commitment to freedom, fair play on the part of the Electoral Commission if this year’s crucial presidential and parliamentary election should be free and fair.
“The posture of the EC and the Attorney-General to the ruling of the Supreme Court is tantamount to chaos and will make complete mockery of the peace which all Ghanaians have been craving for before, during and after the elections”.
The group said it was shocking that the ruling NDC government had aligned itself to the thinking of the EC and the Attorney-General, and wondered what the NDC would lose if the Supreme Court’s ruling was implemented to the letter.
“All political parties have been crying for a clean register all these years. They all agree that the register is bloated so why are some of the parties up in arms against the ruling of the Supreme Court?
“What is even more shocking is that when a Justice of the Supreme Court recently made it abundantly clear that there was nothing ambiguous about the ruling, some functionaries of the NDC descended heavily on him as if he had committed a crime.
“The EC and NDC should not forget that the same Supreme Court which threw away the ‘NPP Election Petition’ is the same body that is asking for a deletion of the names of those who used NHIA cards to vote because it is illegal.
“What really is the difficulty of the EC in implementing such a clear-cut ruling? Ghanaians want a free and fair election and the EC must be the last body to stand in the way of the people in the quest for fair play,” the statement added.
On the ECG, the group said it was surprised that despite instructions by the Public Utilities and Regulations Commission (PURC) for the suspension of its billing software until further notice, nothing appears to have been done.
“Ghanaians are really suffering. The economic hardships are simply unbearable and the ECG cannot continue to turn a deaf ear to the orders of the PURC”.
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