<<Print>>

President John Dramani Mahama and a political scientist, Dr Ransford Gyampoh, have shot down the opposition New Patriotic Party’s strongest reason why the Electoral Commission must compile a new voters’ register for the 2016 elections.

To the disappointment of operatives of the NPP and their assigns who until recently were trumpeting that the President called for replacement of Togo’s voter register when he was ECOWAS chairman, as such there was the need for same to be done in Ghana, President Mahama last Saturday refuted such a claim and challenged Nana Akufo Addo and his NPP to provide proof.

Addressing a rally of the ruling party at the Jackson Park in Koforidua over the weekend as part of his visit to the Eastern Region, President Mahama did not only describe the claim as “lies”, he also challenged the NPP and its sponsored pressure group, Let My Vote Count Alliance (LMVC) which had consistently held onto the false claim to prove their point.

Without mincing words, the president stated categorically, "So what the NPP are saying about me on the Togo elections are lies."

Similarly, Senior Lecturer at the Political Science Department of the University of Ghana, Dr. Ransford Gyampoh, has audaciously described NPP’s call for new voter register hollow, selective and baseless.
“How valid, reliable and truthful are these allegations coming from a party seeking to capture political power. In Ghana, the history of our fourth republic shows that anytime political parties are seeking to annex power, they indulge in all manner of things and so shouldn’t these allegations first be thoroughly investigated by the EC?” he queried.

Explaining what exactly he said when he visited Lome prior to Togo’s Presidential elections, President Mahama, who was then Chairman of ECOWAS, said he asked for postponement of the elections to allow Togo's Electoral Commission (CENI) complete work on finalizing the voters’ register and its validation processes.

The President said "in view of the work that has to be done, in validating the voters register, it makes it very difficult for the election to come off on the 15th of April. ECOWAS proposes that the election be shifted by 10 days to April 25 so that enough space is given for issues relating to the voters register to be resolved to everybody’s satisfaction in advance of the election."

He noted that officials from La Francophonie were helping the CENI in the clean-up of the voters register for the elections, and this should be completed in about one week.

The NPP and its assigns however latched on this statement, and made statements to the effect that the president called for new voters’ register for Togo, therefore he should also support their demand for a new voters’ register in Ghana.

On his part, Dr. Gyampoh also questioned why most of the supposed evidence of foreigners on the nations’ register presented by the NPP, has “been limited to only areas close to NDC’s stronghold, particularly Togo.”

“Where are the other compelling border towns’ evidence? It is important for us not to lose sight of the fact that, our constitution favors dual citizenship. I must say, it is however silent on the right of such people to register as voters but this silence of the constitution cannot be interpreted to suit the whims of any group,” he cautioned.

Political Analysts have opined that aside the yet-to-be verified evidence provided by NPP’s 2016 running mate, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia that 76000 foreigners are on Ghana’s register, President Mahama’s misconstrued statement was the potent claim the NPP and the acolytes were relying on to demand a new register.