A group calling itself CARE Ghana has said the Electoral Commission‘s claim of a bloated register with names of foreigners and dead people, hence the need for a new register “is false and misleading”.
In a statement signed David Kumi Addo, Executive Secretary, the group said the call for a new voter register “is rather a surreptitious agenda to deny 2,364,015 Ghanaians who are above 18 years and have the right to participate in any public elections in Ghana, the access to register in the just-ended registration exercise”.
“This is aimed at creating an avenue to manipulate the 7 December 2020 general elections”, the group alleged
Read the remainder of the statement below:
The claim that the existing biometric voter register is bloated is a ploy to have an opportunity to put measures in place to reduce the number of voters in this country.
Reducing the number of days from 43 days to 38 days, the exclusion of the birth certificate and the voter ID card as source documents, the intimidation, the assaults and physical prevention of eligible applicants were measures put in place to remove innocent Ghanaians from the register.
The presence of the military specifically to intimidate applicants in specific areas was also designed to reduce the numbers on the register to support the Electoral Commission ‘s claim that the register compiled in 2012 under the watch of Dr Kwedjo Afari Gyan was bloated.
In Ho West and Ketu South in the Volta Region and Dormaa West and Banda Ahenkro in the Bono Region, for instance, reports of military intimidation, physical assault and deliberate prevention of eligible applicants led to the death of two individuals and many left with life-threatening wounds.
However, the figure 16,963,306 declared by the Electoral Commission as the total number of people who participated in the just-ended registration exercise clearly indicates that the old register was not bloated as the EC claimed.
This indicates that the compilation of a new voter’s register is needless and a waste of the taxpayers’ money.
We are of the view that, if the EC had not denied the 2,364,015 Ghanaians access to register, a total number of 19,327,321 would have registered in the just end registration exercise.
“CARE” GHANA, therefore, take this opportunity to commend every individual who participated in the registration exercise.
Your show of courage and resilience demonstrates your readiness to take ownership of your country.
You defied all the threats and intimidations by the security forces and the machinations of the Electoral Commission (EC) to register.
This gives us the confidence that you will without fear move out in your numbers to vote and decide who leads this country in the next four years in the 7th December 2020 general elections.
Thank you
Sign
David Kumi Addo
Executive Secretary
