The New Patriotic Party Constituency Chairman for Tema West, Mr Dennis Amfo-Sefah, has stated that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo will win the 2020 polls whether a new voters’ register is used or the old one is used.
He said the agitation by some political parties on the introduction of a new voters’ register was therefore unnecessary and would therefore have no impact on the victory of the President and the NPP in general.
In an interview with the Ghana News Agency in Accra on the issues that were raised on the introduction of a new register, Mr Amfo-Sefah said the agitations were born out of mischief by a people who knew defeat was staring them in the face.
“The trends are poignant; it is clear that even with the current register that we are talking about, President Akufo-Addo will have a second term.”
“For our friends who are making the ugly noises around town, maybe they have forgotten, this is the very same register that gave President Akufo-Addo a landslide victory with a gap of one million votes,” Mr Amfo-Sefah, who is popularly called Nana Boakye, said.
He said under normal circumstance, it was President Akufo-Addo and the NPP which should be fighting the Electoral Commission (EC) over its intent to change the very register which gave the NPP a landslide victory and brought them into power from opposition.
“But President Akufo-Addo is not doing this, the NPP is not seeking to use its incumbency to force the EC to maintain this register, which has been favourable to the NPP. It is the opposition parties rather that are fighting for the register to be maintained. The question is why?”
Register opposition
The coalition of opposition parties has argued that the EC had no justifiable excuse to change the existing biometric register because there was nothing wrong with it.
They also argue that whatever was wrong with the register could easily be solved.
EC arguments
However, the EC has said that the existing biometric system is outmoded and expensive to maintain, hence the need to go in for a new one at a cheaper rate.
Parliament has approved about GH¢390 million for the EC to procure a new biometric system which has facial recognition technology and also compile a new voters’ register.
Fractured parties
Mr Amfo-Sefah said a critical look at the parties opposed to the new voters’ register showed that the parties were a big joke.
“A look at the cast of political parties protesting will easily show you that the whole protest movement is a joke. Take PNC, while their national chairman is protesting, their secretary has said he supports the compilation of a new register. The CPP is similarly fractured. As for Hassan Ayariga and his APC, everybody knows that his party is a one-man show,” he said.
He advised the parties to stop wasting their energies on the protest that would end nowhere and rather concentrate on trying to position themselves as alternatives to the NPP government.
“Because as for Nana Addo, whether you vote with a new register or not, he is already a winner,” Chairman Nana Boakye said.
Source: GNA
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THERE SHOULD BE AN URGENT CORDINATION BETWEEN NIA AND EC SO THAT GHANA CARD IS USED FOR THE ELECTORAL REGISTER. WHAT IS THE SENSEEEE TO ACQUIRING NEW EQUIPEMENT TO START NEW REGISTRATION FOR ELECTION. AT WORST ADDITIONAL EQUIPMENT AND PERSONNEL SHOULD BE GRANTED TO NIA TO WORK FASTER TO COMPLETE ITS WORK. MY GOD. IS ANYBODY THINKING IN GHANA, I AM SORRY. WHAT A WASTE SOCIETY. HOW CAN WE GROW WHEN WE DONT HAVE VALUE FOR MONEY. WE WASTE SO MUCH FOR NOTHING. YES, EC MAY SAVE A LOT OF MONEY BY NEW EQUIPEMENT FOR NEW REGISTER BUT THAT CANNOT BE BETTER THAN SUPPORTING NIA TO PROVIDE THE DATA BASE TO BE EXTRACTED FOR EC REGISTER. THE LATTER MAY COST ALMOST NOTHING. PLEASE, DEAR EMINENT ADVISORY COMMITTEE, DO SOMETHING TO SAVE THE NATIONS THE COST FOR NEW EQUIPMENT FOR NEW REGISTER. CALL TOGETHER THE EC TECHNICIANS AND GHANAIAN TECHNICIANS AT HOME AND ABROAD WHO CAN HELP TO MAKE NIA DATA BASE AVAILABLE AND APPLICABLE FOR 2020 ELECTIONS. GHANA CARD CANNOT HAVE ANY BETTER IMPORTANCE WHATSOEVER THAN TO BE USE FOR ELECTIONS. WHATEVER PROBLEMS NIA HAVE NOW CANNOT BE WORSE THAN WHAT A NEW REGISTRATION CARD FOR ELECTION MAY HAVE. ANY PROBLEM FOR GHANA CARD TODAY CAN BE RESOLVE FASTER AND BETTER THAN THE UNKNOWN PROBLEM THAT NEW ELECTORAL REGISTRATION CARD MAY CAUSE. IN FACT IF A NEW CARD IS MADE FOR ELECTION MANY PEOPLE MAY NOT FIND IT IMPORTANCE TO COLLECT THEIR GHANA CARD FROM NIA, ANOTHER WASTE. THOUGH THE PRODUCTION AND ACQUISITION OF GHANA CARD HAS NO TIME BOUND A DEADLINE CAN BE SET TO SEAL THE DATE FOR THE EXTRACTION OF THE ELECTORAL REGISTER. EAC MUST HELP TO BRING ALL RELATED TECHNICAL MINDS OF EC, NIA AND OTHER GHANAIANS EITHER HOME AND ABROAD TOGETHER TO FORMULATE WHAT IS NEEDED TO ACCOMPLISH A CREDIBLE ELECTIONS. THEIR FINDINGS AND PROPOSALS MUST BE BROUGHT BEFORE EC, POLITICAL PARTIES, CIVIL SOCIETIES IN A SHORT POSSIBLE TIME. THOUGH THIS IS NOT IMAGINED, WHEN ALL BECOME INVOLVED WE CANNOT BLAME EC FOR ANY DELAY SHOULD IN CASE IT HAPPENS SO BECAUSE THIS IS GHANA PROJECT AND NOT ONLY EC PROJECT. WE WANT WHAT IS BEST FOR GHANA AT A REASONABLE MINIMUM COST. THE EARLY WE START WORKING TOGETHER THE BETTER IT IS FOR ALL OF US. ONE MAY ASK WHY SHOULD WE DO ALL THIS ONLY WHEN NPP IS IN GOVERNMENT AND NOT NDC WHO IS ALWAYS ALLOWED TO HAVE A FIELD DAY? MY ANSWER IS THAT AS PARENTS WE ADVICE OOR CHILDREN WHO TAKE ADVISE. WE DON'T WASTE OUR TIME ON THOSE WHO DO NOT APPRECIATE THE VALUE FOR REASONING. NPP MUST ALSO KNOW THAT THEY ARE DOING ALL FOR GHANA AND THEY MUST GIVE WHAT IS THE BEST TO THE FUTURE GENERATION WHETHER THEY ARE IN POWER OR NOT. NO GOOD DEED GOES UNREWARDED. WE NEVER HEARD OF EAC DURING NDC TIME BUT NPP IN THEIR WISDOM HAVE ESTABLISHED IT. WE MUST SUPPORT IT TO WORK FOR ALL.