Don't blame EC for register issues - Asiedu Nketia

NDC General Secretary Johnson Asiedu Nketia says all political parties, including his, must accept responsibility for the bloated voters’ register, and stop blaming the Electoral Commission.

This week the Supreme Court ruled the EC should delete the names of all dead people, minors and persons who used the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) cards to register to vote.

It ordered the EC to clean the voters register in a case brought to it by the former People’s National Convention Youth Organiser, Abu Ramadan.

Speaking to Joy New, Nketia said the desire for an “unfair advantage” by politicians is at the heart of the political tensions in this country during elections.

NDC and rival party NPP have been accusing each other of engaging in electoral irregularities, like registering minors, non-Ghanaians and intimidating applicants in the Limited Biometric Voter Registration exercise which is expected to end on Sunday.

Nketia said it was hypocritical for politicians to blame their rivals, and that they would register minors when presented with the opportunity.

“Most of the problems are created by political parties [because of] their desire to outwit each other”, he said.

“That is why I always have problems when all the blame is being heaped on the Electoral Commission, There is no way the EC by itself can conduct such exercise without the cooperation of political party agents”.

The General Secretary told Joy FM he has been advocating for years that state institutions deal ruthlessly with electoral offenders to no avail.

“If you have a situation where there is reluctance on the part of the Electoral Commission or state institutions to punish electoral offences….we will continue to have these type of problems”.

However, National Youth Organiser of the New Patriotic Party, Sammy Awuku has rejected the claim of collective responsibility for electoral offences.

According to Awuku, the NPP does not need votes of foreigners to win an election. The party’s push for a new voters’ register is evidence that the NPP is a clean and honest party that does not look out for unfair advantage.