EC wants to rig election 2020 to keep Akufo-Addo in power - Victor Smith

Ghana's Former Ambassador to the UK, Victor Smith, has said the obstinate nature of the NPP government led by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and the Electoral Commission (EC) to go on with the compilation of a new voters' register is simply to rig the 2020 elections.

According to him, many political parties serving on the Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC) have kicked against the compilation of a new voters' register including institutions like Coalition of Domestic Election Observers (CODEO) and the Center for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana).

He added that due to the ill-motive of the EC and the NPP government to rig the election, they are insisting on the compilation of a new voters' register.

"It does not make sense to rush and compile a new voter’s register in this era of coronavirus, I think the EC wants to do everything possible to keep President Akufo-Addo in power which is against our democracy," he said on Accra-based Kingdom FM.

"We need to bear in mind that the NIA has struggled to complete its exercise in three years, so the EC purporting to do this in less than one year suggests a very stressful time for everyone with no guarantees of success, but a definite requirement for huge resource expenditure," he noted.

He believed the current register can be cleaned by various ways to lower the anger among millions of Ghanaians who believe it does not make economic sense to change the existing voters' register.

He indicated that it does not make any sense for the Electoral Commission (EC) to still go ahead with the compilation of new voters' register in spite of the fact that 9 political parties have kicked against the move.

He implored Ghanaians to reason with the NDC and also know the political party that has the interest of the country at heart as against the political party seeking for its personal interest.