NPP Warn Of Chaotic Election

By Mohammed Awal ([email protected])
The Acting General Secretary of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), John Boadu, has warned that the November 7 polls could be chaotic if the Police and the security agencies fail to offer equal and impartial security services for all.

He said the NPP was particularly worried about what could be expected in the upcoming general elections, “if we can witness such scale of violence and intimidation being masterminded by officials of government and being unleashed in the full glare of the Police.”

He was speaking at a news conference in Accra yesterday to lay bare to the nation critical concerns the party has in respect of the on-going Limited Voters Registration Exercise –which ranged from wrong dates identified on Voters ID cards; violence and intimidation of registrants with official involvements among others.

Mr. Boadu accused government and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) of unleashing thugs and 'Machomen' to violently intimidate potential registrants in some of the NPP's strongholds. This, he explained, appeared to be a carefully tailored strategy by the “NDC to reduce the number of voters in our strongholds, and these obvious criminal acts are being perpetrated in some cases with the involvement of government including Regional Ministers and DCEs.”

Citing some of the instances where the NDC-hired bullies on motorbikes with machetes inflicted mayhem on registrants during the Limited Voters Registration Exercise, he said they scattered the Electoral Commission's (EC) registration machines at the GYENYASE Registration center in the Asokwa Constituency of the Ashanti, APIOSO Electoral Area in the Ejura-Sekyedumasi constituency among others, as these thugs resorted to stone pelting to disrupt the exercise and scare away potential registrants.

A similar incident, he added, happened at Banda in the Brong-Ahafo Region, where the MP for the area brought in Machomen to intimidate NPP's polling agents in the full glare of the Police who failed to take any action.  “With the Police failing to take any action, the Machomen were encouraged further to subject our agents to severe beatings and further drove them away from the registration center, with the EC officials going ahead with the registration without our agents,” decried Mr. Boadu.

He thus called on the security agencies, especially the Ghana Police Service, to rise up to the occasion by checking the naked abuse of power by officials of the NDC government who are encouraging lawlessness at the registration centres with gross impunity.“If the lawlessness is not checked now, we fear the November general elections will be chaotic and lead the nation on a dangerous path,“ he stated.

Registering minors and foreigners
also, Mr. Boadu did not shy from using the news conference to address the issues of bussing minors by party officials for registration; continued attempts at registering foreigners, among others. According to him, it was, however, instructive to bring to the fore that in most cases, “these efforts have been resisted and foiled by the locals” who are familiar with these kids and were determined to ensure that the change agenda was not thwarted by any foul play.

He said sensing obvious rejection by the Ghanaian electorate, the NDC was seeking all means to get some foreigners registered in the ongoing exercise. This was mostly happening in the border towns of Western and Volta Regions, he added.

He also asserted that the NDC have been seeking to prevent Senior High School (SHS) who turned 18 years from taking part in the exercise and one such attempt happened at Abetifi in the Eastern Region, where students of Abefiti Presby SHS were being prevented from registering, leading to serious misunderstanding.

Mr. Boadu, therefore, called on the EC to ensure that they discharge their duties in accordance with the regulations guiding the ongoing registration exercise and take all the appropriate steps to prevent a situation where a potential voter could be robbed of his or her civic right to take part in the upcoming general elections through no fault of theirs.

“The wind of change is blowing across the length and breadth of the country. The people of Ghana are determined to ensure the exit of the Mahama government from power in order to save our nation from further collapse.  “We are prepared to do everything legitimate to ensure that the wishes of the majority of our people come into reality in this year's elections,” he declared.