Coalition against new voters’ register condemn CID over Mornah invitation

The Inter-Party Resistance Against New Voters’ Register (IPRAN) has registered its displeasure at what it said was government’s attempts to bully the coalition into accepting the new voter roll.

IPRAN believes government and those in favour of a new register proposed by the Electoral Commission (EC) are using the police to intimidate the Coalition.

“We are appalled by the decision of the CID to kowtow to the whims and caprice of some individuals who have been irked by not just the spirited resistance of Comrade Bernard Mornah in particular but by the Coalition as a whole,” IPRAN noted in a statement on May 29 which was signed by Leader and Founder of the United Front Party (UFP).

This follows an invitation by the CID to Convenor of IPRAN, Mr Bernard Mornah, to answer questions on comments he made deemed to have been threats against the EC and its officials.

The CID says Mr Mornah made the statement during a press conference by the Inter-Party Resistance Against New Register (IPRAN) on 26 May 2020.

“You were also heard in a video interview to have threatened “that people who are already Ghanaians and already registered are going to be taken out of the register, don’t you think confusion will come at the registration and if confusion come there, you think the EC staff will be safe, we will beat each other there, we will kill each other there if that is what the EC want to lead this nation to,” the invitation letter dated May 28, 2020 and signed by Barima Tweneboah Sasraku II, a Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCOP) for the Director-General of CID said.

In a response, IPRAN said they are aware “that this is a calculated attempt by the government through the police to intimidate and cow the Coalition into submission on the heated matter of the compilation of a new voters’ register ahead of the 2020 elections”.

“Let the Police beware that this is not going to soften the poignant stance of the Coalition on the ill-advised and the needless decision to compile a new voters’ register which is going to disenfranchise a vast majority of the people coupled with the fact that it is at a huge cost to the poor taxpayer,” IPRAN added.

In a related development, Mr Mornah, who has revealed his intentions to honour the CID invitation, clarified in an interview with Accra-based Citi FM indicated that his comments were caution and not a threat to the EC.

“I have said that if the Electoral Commission is intending to lead us through this dangerous path, they should know that there will be confusion…It is a caution. If caution becomes threats, I will not run away from it,” he stated.

“A caution cannot represent a threat, but if they take it as a threat, then I may have to bring my English teacher to tell them that cautions are not threats,” he added.

IPRAN is made up of a number of political parties who have kicked against the new voter roll and organised a series of demonstrations in Tamale, Kumasi and Accra.

Members of IPRAN include the main opposition the National Democratic Congress (NDC), the All People’s Congress (APC), the United Front Party (UFP), People’s National Convention (PNC), Eagle Party (EP) and the United Progressive Party (UPP).