Election hotspots outrageous, are we going for war? – Mahama

The Presidential Candidate of the National Democratic Congress, (NDC), John Dramani Mahama has described as outrageous the number of polling stations identified as flashpoints ahead of the December elections.

The Ghana Police Service furnished the National Election Security Taskforce with the details of over 4,000 polling stations it has identified as flashpoints to guide its tactical arrangements and deployment of personnel across the country’s 16 regions.

The former President in an interview with Woezor TV to wrap up his campaign tour of the Ashanti Region, however, said he believed that the deployment is an attempt by Nana Akufo-Addo to scare voters especially in the strongholds of the opposition.

“As President, I was head of the National Security Agency and I chaired the National Security Council meetings and before the elections the police and security services come up with the flashpoints and I have never seen such an outrageous number of flashpoints like this.

The point is, at the various flashpoints that are identified, the threats are indicated. So every flashpoint comes with a justification of why it must be identified as a flashpoint, but you look at the 4000, it’s like we’re going to war. I mean on what basis have they identified them as flashpoints and what’s the threats level for each of those particular flashpoints?” He lamented.

Mr. Mahama noted that the general security architecture has gone down completely and it makes Ghanaians lose respect for our security agencies.

On how his party plans to deal with any attempt to rig the elections, the former President said he was convinced that the power of the people will supersede any other on the day of voting.

“We are not going to deploy vigilantes or armed people to go causing trouble, but I mean when somebody goes to the polling station to snatch a ballot box or cause trouble the constitution gives power to the people to resist the person and so we are just putting it into the hands of the people of Ghana to make sure that the ballot is protected,” he explained.

The Ghana Police Service says it has identified a number of areas where chaos is likely to erupt ahead of the December 7, elections.

The vicinities are categorised into key flashpoints with the Ashanti Region topping with the most districts said to be prone to violence.

The National Commission on Small Arms and Light Weapons has already indicated the relevance of alertness in the country’s overall approach going into the election to ensure that acts of violence are reduced to the barest minimum.

They want these flashpoints to be adequately monitored as various political parties intensify their campaigns in a bid to secure victory in the December presidential and parliamentary elections.