Flagbearer of the main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), John Dramani Mahama in his assessment of the recently ended voter registration exercise has described the exercise as the most violent ever to happened in the country under the leadership of President Akufo-Addo.
According to him, the country has never had a voter registration exercise and seen a magnitude of violence as witnessed in the just ended compilation of a new voters’ register as seen under the Akufo-Addo government.
Speaking at a gathering in Keta Krachi in the Oti Region on Sunday, August 9, 2020, former President John Mahama said that the worse of all in the history of voter registration exercise in the country is the attempt by the NPP government to exclude some people who are citizens of the country and robbing them of their citizenships.
“We have never had a registration and seen the level of violence that we have seen under this government. Registration is a peaceful exercise and so let everybody come out and register but the worse one is the attempt to exclude some people who are citizens of this country and robbing them of their citizenships,” he stated.
He stressed that the just ended voter registration exercise was reduced to a point where “as soon as your name does not sound familiar in somebody’s ears then the assumption is that you are not a Ghanaian”.
To him, the most ludicrous strategy of the governing NPP to deny people their constitutional right to register to be part of the voting process was to greet a group of people at the registration centres in French and their ability to respond back in French is taken as people who are either Togolese or Burkinabe nationals.
“The most ludicrous one that I have heard was the strategy they use, they meet a group of people and they say Bonjour and if you respond Bonjour, then they say you are a Togolese or a Burkinabe but who does not know Bonjour in Ghana?”
“People whose ancestors were born in this country and they have contributed to the progress of this country are the great, great-grandchildren of people who lived in this country long before independence, today you go to register and somebody says you are not a Ghanaian because your name does not sound familiar; it is not what he is used to but the EC even said that assuming you believe the person is not a Ghanaian, file the complain the form, they refused and took the law into their hands,” he asserted.
Looking at what transpired at the voter registration exercise, former President John Mahama claimed he can foresee what President Akufo-Addo and his NPP government intend to do in the 2020 general election; alleging that some of the vigilantes have been absorbed into the security services and others have been given national security cards and weapons.
“We can foresee what they intend to do in the 2020 general election. The vigilantes, some of them have been absorbed into the security services, others are given national security card and they have weapons on them,” he asserted.
“I saw a very sad video of somebody in civilian clothes holding a pistol and threatening a police officer and there were other security personnel there including the military and what I saw was them begging him to calm down and I said this guy should be arrested and be behind bars right now and yet they were begging him with his pistol threatening the police officer. I mean what kind of a country have we become?”
“All these people are running rampage and we have just seen this recent registration exercise where thugs go and try to prevent people from registering, they go and cause confusion at the polling centres in order to disrupt the process and yet they do it with impunity and they get away with it,” he bemoaned.
Copyright © 1994 - 2024 GhanaWeb. All rights reserved.
