NDC connived with EC to disenfrachise tertiary students - MP

Member of Parliament for the Assin Central constituency, Hon. Kennedy Agyapong is accusing the governing National Democratic Congress and the Electoral Commission (EC) of deliberately disenfranchising tertiary students from registering in the just ended limited registration exercise.

The firebrand legislator said the NDC and the EC connived together to disenfranchise students at the various tertiary institutions from registering because the umbrella family are afraid of losing the elections.

Speaking in an interview with Kwame Tutu on Frontline on Rainbow Radio, Hon. Agyapong opined that "for fear of losing the upcoming general elections due to their abysmal performance, the NDC connived with the Electoral Commission to disenfranchise the students. They [NDC] are aware that the students want to change because they [students] are feeling the economic hardship. The NDC knows they can no longer feed the tertiary students with lies because they now understand governance and can easily tell when things are going bad.''

He chastised the EC for failing to provide adequate centres to allow students at the various tertiary institutions register when they knew that the number of students that participated in the exercise exceeded the polling centres provided.

Hon. Kennedy Agyapong said, he felt sad that Ghanaians particularly social and civic groups have kept quiet over the issue.

Meanwhile, the University Students Association of Ghana (USAG) has given the Electoral Commission up to Thursday, May 12, 2016, to extend the limited registration exercise to allow their members who could register to do so or face a lawsuit.

The student body are not satisfied with the number of students who had the opportunity to register during the exercise. According to them, some inadequacies characterised the process hence the need for the EC to extend the days for those who were disenfranchised to register.

President of the Association, Henry Nkosuo Boakye who spoke to Rainbow Radio FM said the EC must hasten to respond to the issues raised in its petition forwarded to the election management body or face a legal action.

However, commenting on the threat by the Association, Hon. Kennedy Agyapong said the EC should consider extending the exercise to allow the students register since they are to blame for the problem.

He said it is obvious that his claims cannot be disputed because of the position taken by the NDC who have called on the EC to resist attempts of extending the days of registration for the disenfranchised students.

''Why should Kofi Adams say that they will not extend the registration exercise; Who is he to make such claims? You [Kofi Adams] do not know which political party these students belong to. This clearly shows that the NDC and EC connived together to make sure that majority of the students do not register...The EC should give the students the chance to register. This should not be dragged to court at all. They [EC] can organise the extension within three days