2012 elections will go on with or without the NPP

Kojo Twum-Boafo, the Executive Secretary of the Ghana Free Zones Board has stated that with or without the opposition NPP, the 2012 elections will go on. He said “let the NPP boycott the elections, we will go on with it. Who knows I might end up becoming MP for Manhyia”.

It may be recalled that the NPP Deputy Communications Director, Samuel Awuku dropped a hint few weeks ago that, “It is likely that the NPP will boycott the 2012 elections if there is no verification”.

According to him, the NPP would not sit unconcerned for the Electoral Commission to do its own things to the displeasure of the general populace, adding “the personal opinion of Dr Afari-Gyan, the commission's Chairman, does not override the opinions of Ghanaians who need biometric registration with verification”. The reason of the NPP is that the EC's position not to add verification to support the impending biometric voter registration would spell doom for the country as it could be a recipe for electoral dispute.

Speaking on “Good Morning Ghana” programme on Metro TV, Kojo Twum-Boafo said the Electoral Commission has made it clear that they do not have the resources as well as time to introduce biometric verification in the 2012 elections adding “it is a process and we must all know that. I am confident biometric verification will be possible in the 2016 elections but not in 2012”. Another panel member, Abdul Malik Kweku-Baaku, Editor-In-Chief of the “New Crusading Guide” newspaper said if biometric registration is possible, then, it is important verification is being introduced also in order not for people to doubt the election results. According to him, it was worrying for the ruling party General Secretary in the person of Johnson Asiedu Nketia known in political parlance as “General Mosquito” to have stated categorically that the NDC is against the electronic verification systems being advocated by the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP). “General Mosquito” opined that “the electronic verification system could disenfranchise people in the unlikely event of a power outage on voting day since it operates with electricity” and that 50 per cent of the Ghanaian populace was uneducated.

Kweku Baaku said the reasons advanced by the NDC Scribe were weak and the Electoral Commission must come clear with the reasons why biometric verification would not be used in 2012 elections.

Francis Xavier Tuokuu/Ghananewslink.com