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10,000 'suspected foreigners' cross border into Jomoro - Samia raises red flags

By MyJoyOnline
Politics 10,000 'suspected foreigners' cross border into Jomoro - Samia raises red flags
APR 28, 2016 LISTEN

Former presidential aspirant of the Convention Peoples' Party Samia Nkrumah claims that some 10,000 suspected foreigners have crossed into Ghana from Ivory Coast as registration for newly eligible voters begin Thursday.

Samia Nkrumah suspects that the increase in movement of people at the Elubo border in the past few days are coming into Jomoro township to obtain a voters’ ID card.

The Electoral Commission (EC) has begun an exercise to register Ghanaians who have turned at least 18 since the last registration and have therefore reached the age of voter eligibility to enable them to vote in the November election.

The process has begun at a time when the EC has admitted that the voters’ register is bloated.

For Samia Nkrumah who will be contesting the Jomoro seat, a bloated register was the cause of her defeat in 2012 parliamentary elections in the constituency.

The Jomoro voter’s register increased by more than 11,000 people after it was last used in the 2008 elections, she told Joy News.

She said there is a general sense of anxiety among residents in Jomoro who feel that with the limited registration exercise underway, communities are being “overwhelmed” by foreigners.

Samia Nkrumah believes what happened in 2012 could happen again hence, vigilance has become her team’s watchword.

She said the “phenomena of busing in voters from neighbouring countries is something that has to be looked into carefully”.

The CPP leader, however, admitted determining the citizenship of those crossing the Elubo border is a “dicey issue”.

Samia served notice that she has taken the first step to address the sudden rise in movement at the Elubo border by reporting to the police.

Europe once experienced the challenge of dealing with nationalities but has since resolved it she said, adding Ghana must find a way of ascertaining the citizenship of voters.

Story by Ghana|myjoyonline.com|[email protected]

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