Sanctimonious Kwadwo Afari-Gyan Must Listen To The Voice Of The People!

The fact is irrefutable that Ghana's fledgling democracy will be put to another strenuous test in 2016 when the masses queue up to determine who their next leader should be. Of critical concern to many well-meaning Ghanaians is whether there will be a re-live of what was witnessed at the Supreme Court in case there is any attempt to suppress the sovereign will of the people by declaring a candidate president through some clerical and transpositional errors as was witnessed in the last elections.

No one needs to possess the exceptional gift of a psychic to come to the ultimate conclusion that the courts would be ignored in 2016 should what happened in 2012 rear its ugly head again since the law, according to Justice William Atuguba and his partners in crime, is immaterial in such instances. The consequences may be dire, if the old path is retraced. It is against this background that the Afari Djan led-Electoral Commission must drop its recalcitrant posture by listening to the voices of reason!

It has been established variously that our electoral register is beyond bloated, and must be sanctified before the next general elections. Apropos the recommendations made by the Supreme Court in the famous elections petition, coupled with what some political parties have proposed, the EC has seen the need to vary and reform certain aspects of the laws pertaining to how elections are conducted. It gladdened our wailing hearts when Dr. Afari Djan announced a few days ago, that he, in close collaboration with the political parties and other stakeholders, is setting up a committee to delve deeply into the multitude of recommendations the EC has been flooded with. It is a step in the right direction for opinionated Afari Djan to condescend to the level of thousands of Ghanaians whose interest lies in Ghana going beyond 2016 in one piece.

Whilst we laud Dr. Afari Djan for this rare initiative, sight must not be lost of the fact that the problems besetting our electoral system far outweigh what the Supreme Court highlighted by way of recommendations!

United for Change Movement has sunk into our electoral register and have come out with facts and figures very incongruent with the population census conducted in 2010! There are about sixty- two (62) districts/constituencies whose 2010 population census figures make nonsense of what have been captured in the electoral register as those eligible to vote! For the sake of emphasis, let us dwell on six or seven of such districts which are also constituencies;

1. Ketu South's population stood at 160,756, but its voting population is 126,679. It means that 78.8% of the entire population was eligible to vote. We should not forget that the census figure did not exclude minors and strangers, and some might have died before the registration in 2012, yet we had these numbers of people voting in that district. This is intelligibly incohesive!

2. Ga East had a census figure of 259,688 and a voting figure of 231,684; representing 89.2%. This is bizarre, to say the least!

3. Obuasi with a population of 168,641, managed to register an amazing figure of 130,763; representing 77.5%, we find this figure to be wierd.

4. With a population of 143,762, Ejisu Juaben could strangely register an unbelievable figure of 108,980 as voting population. This represents 75.8% of the entire population of the district/constituency.

5. Bia district with a population of 116,332, the voting population was surprisingly 92,217; and this figure represents 79.3%.

6. Wassa Amanfi with a population of 88,688, the EC captured their voting population at an alarming figure of 110,192; representing an outrageous figure of 110%.

Fellow Ghanaians, in an ideal situation, the voting population of a constituency or country should not exceed 41% of its entire population, but what we have in these afore-mentioned districts/constituencies ridiculously outmatch normalcy! Attempts by some unscrupulous persons to create the impression that these figures are sacred because our annual population growth rate of 2.3% justifies these abnormal numbers should be treated with scorn since the numbers do not add up.

United for Change Movement is drawing the attention of Dr. Afari Djan and his allies that any reform made in our electoral system without addressing these concerns of the over bloated register will be counterproductive! We insist on a fresh register for election 2016 to ensure truly free, fair and transparent elections!

In their tendentious agenda to obfuscate the real issues surrounding this call for the electoral register to be sanitized to ensure controversy- free polls in 2016, the EC, led by Christian Owusu Perry, attempted to pull the wool over the eyes of Ghanaians with an explanation which was not only lame but absurd. We are scandalized with the example Mr. Owusu cited to buttress their claims that the register is not bloated. Charity, we say, begins at home! Why did Mr. Owusu Perry use Australia as a case study but not any other West African country or even African country? Perhaps, he knows very little about the age distribution of Australia's population and the current birth rate, so we can forgive him, but in all sincerity, using Australia as a case study is not only uninformed but miles off target! Christian Owusu Perry should cite African examples! He also alluded to the fact that the figures reported by the statistical service are in sync with our register in terms of Ghana's adults' population, using this assertion to justify the figures captured in the register.

Owusu Perry and Afari Djan are not on the same wavelength then, because the latter, before the Legislature in 2012, was emphatic that there were too many minors in the register, lending credence to the long-held perception that our register is not a document worth trusting. Owusu Perry and his allies should stop sounding funny with these weird explanations and allow the right thing to be done, which is, getting a new register for the next elections.

What is this fuss about the lexical items BLOATED and OVERBLOATED as Amadu Sulley, Afari Djan's deputy, sought to indulge in? Amadu Sulley should get the point that Ghanaians understand one thing; the indubitable fact that there are more names in our electoral register than required, and that is hugely unacceptable, and must be fixed! We are sick and tired of these semantics!

SIGNED:
MR. ROBBIE SARKODIE KLINSMAN : +447534455242
MR. KWADJO ANIM : +233247651154/+4915210555432
P.K Sarpong: 024 888 9263
Jamaludeen A. Abdullah: 0246198919
Kate Pratt: +44 7912 365690