We are vindicated by reduction in voter registrations from border towns – NPP
The NPP says records from the just-ended voter registration exercise has confirmed the long-held view that foreigners have contributed to the bloating of the country’s voter roll.
The party said “there has been some reduction in the registration figures in border constituencies” computation of figures from the nationwide exercise.
From the party’s computation, the new register has been slashed as high as 30% in Dormaa East, for example in the Bono Region.
Per the party’s figures, areas such as Akatsi North in the Volta Region, a stronghold of the opposition NDC, had numbers reduced by as much as 22.8%.
According to the party, the least reduction was in Jaman South in the Bonon with a dip by 3.1%.
Addressing a press conference, NPP General Secretary, John Boadu, accused the NDC of attempting to smuggle Ivorians to register in the Bono Region, but security agencies foiled the attempt.
Before the registration exercise, heavy military personnel were stationed at vantage points by Mr Baodu maintained that “a major security imperative for deploying security personnel to our borders is first and foremost the prevention of terrorism. That is why there is more personnel on the northern border”.
He continued: “ Pursuant to the advent of COVID-19, the security duty was enhanced to include the containment measures required against COVID-19. The NDC had full knowledge of these measures and did not complain.
“It is the same deployments that coincidentally, had to be in place to prevent not only illegal entries against COVID-19 but also the influx of non-Ghanaians seeking to be part of the voter registration exercise,” he maintained.
The opposition party raised concerns about the presence of the military, but Mr Boadu insisted that the large numbers did not support claims of intimidation and disenfranchising Ghanaians in the border towns.
The party, further, charged the flagbearer of the NDC, former President John Dramani, to apologise for comments that certain groups of people were facing discrimination.
“In a reported Facebook live session held on tour in Kete Krachie, the leader of the NDC, John Mahama, having initially bastardised the voter registration, has now conceded that the exercise has been successful.
“So, we, in the NPP, expect him to apologise to the nation for the dangerous ethnic sentiments he raised, jeopardising the security of the state with unwarranted attacks.
“His actions which were mirrored by the leadership of his party unduly created fear and raised political tension in the country,” he stressed.
The NPP accused the NDC of using “dangerous ethnocentric agenda through outright fabrications and fear-mongering in what they claimed to be ethnic disenfranchisement” after having “failed in their desperate attempt to stop the Electoral Commission (EC) from compiling a new voters register.