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The Member of Parliament for Ellembele, Hon Emmanuel Armah Kofi Buah has called for an immediate investigation by the Minister for Defence and the Military High Command into the presence of armed military personnel in Ellembele during the ongoing voter registration exercise by the Electoral Commission (EC).

Armah Kofi Buah who spoke to Journalists at Parliament House today said the presence of the military personnel is a calculated attempt to create fear and panic amongst the people of Ellembele.

He wondered why the Ellembele constituency which is not a border town is having such deployment of armed military personnel and described the situation as unfortunate.

Commenting on the issue, the Minority Chief Whip and MP for Asawase, Hon Muntaka Mohammed-Mubarak said the use of military personnel to harass citizens is totally unlawful and does not augur well for democratic practice in the country.

He said the deployment of security personnel to harass people in strongholds of the NDC during the ongoing voter registration exercise means lessons have not been learned from the Ayawaso West Wuogon by-election violent incidents.


Registration Exercise so far successful

However, the Electoral Commission (EC) has described as successful, the first phase of the ongoing voters’ registration exercise.

According to the EC, it has exceeded its own target by registering some 2, 215,816 across the country.

Addressing the maiden edition of a forum dubbed “Let the Citizen Know”, the Commission attributed the successes to the ‘robust and fast’ nature of the Biometric Voter Registration (BVR) they acquired for the exercise.

The EC said the development is a deviation from the past which was characterized by faulty equipment at the registration centres.

Responding to calls for the ongoing exercise to be suspended over fears of a spike in the coronavirus pandemic, Chairperson of the Commission, Jean Mensa said if that call is to be adhered to, then the country might as well suspend the December 7 elections.