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19.12.2015 Feature Article

Opana Petition Unseating President Mahama

Opana Petition Unseating President Mahama
19.12.2015 LISTEN

It may sound doubtful to many Ghanaians that the New Patriotic Party [NPP’s] petition over the bloated voters register made impact.

Now, it is a known fact that the [NPP’s] petition over the bloated voters register has made a tremendous impact and continues to win international debate as to why a new voter’s register should be compiled for 2016 elections.

Last August, the NPP vice presidential candidate Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, raised the red flag over the already bloated voters register challenging that it was full of Togolese, Burkinabe and Ivorian nationals which is unacceptable.

Dr. Bawumia’s challenge, created a healthy debate among interested parties both local and international which pushed the party to officially file a petition to call for a new voters register to be compiled for the 2016 presidential and parliamentary elections.

The argument from some interested persons that the petition failed to cause any impact made this reporter to scout for more information to support it or dispel it.

Investigations led this reporter to trace the 2016 NPP presidential candidate Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo’s steps from when he visited United States of America [U.S.A] and Canada recently.

It was revealed that since the NPP filed the petition over the bloated voters register, Nana Akufo Addo’s office was and continues to be filled with invitations from international organizations which are interested in helping make the election 2016 incident free for more explanation on the petition.

Wherever Nana Akufo Addo mounted the platform he decried the poor economic condition of the country under President John Dramani Mahama and the need to change his NDC government through the ballot box it was learnt.

The already impression created was that the country Ghana was the beacon of democracy. That image created is currently at risk looking at the way the Mahama government is mismanaging the economy as his ministers are neck deep in corruption, some critical thinkers have asserted.

So it was clear that when Nana Akufo Addo visited America, he held separate meetings with officials of American policy making organizations, officials from the secretary of state, the assistant secretary of state for Africa and the state foreign relations committee.

Other international policy making groups based in America which he met with were the Center for Global Endowment, Heritage committee, senators and other representatives who were interested in ensuring that the election comes of peacefully.

It was further revealed that he emphatically made it clear to all these groups that the situation back home was not good and it will not do anyone good either if things are swept under the carpet.

Nana Akufo Addo held that, “it will be better to publicize the wrong administration of president Mahama for the whole world to see” adding,” we need to do something about the current situation in Ghana and not wait till some violence happen after the elections and we ask ourselves what happened”.

The situation at home I must say is not good” he insisted and continues to maintain that position ever since the NPP officially filed its petition on the bloated voters register.

AFTER SHOCK
It was not surprising to note that couple of weeks after the NPP officially filed its petition on the bloated register; many concerned Ghanaian groups in Europe hit the streets to demand for a new voters register.

Ghanaians in the United Kingdom on October 26, 2015, followed the debate on the voters register as thousands of them resolved and rallied for the scrapping of the existing register for a freshly compiled new voters register.

As if that rally was not strong, a grand demonstration by concerned Ghanaians in U.K. was staged outside the forecourt of No.10 Downing Street, Richmond Terrace on the Westminster Street in London, on November 6, 2015.

The demonstrator’s wielded placards some of which read,” Election 2016 under threat, Ghanaian elections is for Ghanaians, new voters register now, NDC and EC in bed, there will be no court case and no fair elections no peace”.

Having successfully gone through the security checks at the U.K. PRIME Minister’s residence and office at No. 10 Downing Street, the demonstrators presented their petition which included exhibits of images of multiple Ghanaian registrants, cross border registrants of mainly Togolese nationals, Burkinabe’s and Ivoirians and that of police brutalities on peaceful demonstrators in Accra recently.

Apart from the British Prime Minister, the demonstrators also petitioned the speaker of the British Parliament.

The Commonwealth Secretariat, United Nations UK Representative, The European Union, German Chancellor through her ambassador in the U.K, Pope Francis through the Vatican Pronuncio, the Archbishop of Canterbury as well as several European governments through their embassies in U.K. were petitioned.

THE IMPACT
It was not surprising to note that couple of months after the NPP petition on the bloated register, the United Nations Development Programme [UNDP] sponsored research indicted the Electoral Commission and an Israeli company Superlock Technology Ltd [STL] over the handling of the biometric register [BVR]

According to MYJOY NEWS “the management of biometric database was outsourced to STL who was expected to train and fully hand over the system to the IT Department of the EC before the 2012 elections. But STL did not complied a as the assessment pointed out in August 2015.

Feeling uncomfortable with that, some two NDC activists counter reacted by asking UNDP officials to be quiet or better still leave the country, and in peace.

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