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The Police have turned down a request by the pressure group, “Let My Vote Count,” to picket at the premises of the Electoral Commission (EC) but the convener of the pressure group, David Asante has vowed to continue with the protest against the police order.

The group had written to the Police asking for permission to march from the Obra Spot at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle, through some principal streets of Accra, and end up at the EC to present a petition on the need to have a new voters’ register for the 2016 general elections.

However a statement signed by Christian T. Yohuno, Deputy Commissioner of Police said “…unfortunately, your decision to picket at the Parliament House and the Electoral Commission could not be approved due to security reasons.”

The statement explained that “both locations [EC and Parliament] are security establishments and for that matter, picketing which is expected to attract 2,000 participants or more cannot be permitted within or around the domain.”

The Police proposed alternative routes for the group to consider.

“You are respectfully requested that you start your demonstration from the Obra Spot, GCB Tower, Kwame Nkrumah Avenue through Farisco Traffic Light, TUC, ECG through to EOCO, the High street and end at the Hearts of Oak Park, where arrangements could be made for the petition to be collected by the EC chairperson or her representative,” the statement added.

But reacting to the police proposed alternative routes for the group to consider, David Asante on Okay Fm’s Ade Akye Abia Morning Show opined his pressure group will follow the earlier agreed routes and not the alternative routes.

The convener of the pressure group explained the alternative routes are unacceptable because some youth in NDC is 2008 elections matched to the premises of EC with machetes and other weapons but no security force stopped them.

He insisted further that the pressure group is not going to the premises of the Electoral Commission with similar weapons used by the ruling youth during the 2008 elections but with placards telling demanding from EC a new voters’ register as civilized people.

He added the directive by the police is an arbitrary plan to frustrate their constitutional rights to demonstrate against the body managing the country’s electoral system.

“We wish to tell all the groups and individuals who are joining this picketing, that it is on as planned. We will gather at Obra Spot and move on peacefully to the EC...I am telling you, we are not going to continue till our demand for a new voters’ register is met; we will do it”, he defied the police order.