“Stop Making Panic Phone Calls” - Ludwig Tells NDC&NPP

By Cecil Mensah

The national Youth Organizer of National Democratic Congress (NDC),has appealed to his party agents and those of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), monitoring the Biometric Registration exercise across the country to desist from making panic calls to their party executives, complaining about flimsy issues that could easily be addressed by the electoral officers manning the centres.

Mr. Ludwig Akpene Hlodze, explained that when these calls are made, the executives storm the polling centres with irate supporters, disrupting the exercise for hours and creating inconvenience for electorate.

According to him, the sporadic violence that were recorded during the first phase of the exercise were sparked by some polling agents, making panic calls to their executives about an alleged acts of collusion on the part of some electoral officers.

In his opinion it was these panic calls by agents of the NPP and NDC which has created an unnecessary tension in the country, and led to the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Paul Tawiah Quaye to deploy armed police men to flash points to maintain peace and order.

Mr.Hlodze made the observation when he toured some registration centres in the Greater Accra region last week, to ascertain how smoothly the second phase of the Biometric Registration exercise is going.

The tour , which is to advise all polling agents of NDC and NPP to co-exist and collaborate with the Electoral Commission(EC) officials during the process, took him to Afienya DC primary (A),Dawheya Methodist Primary (B) in the Ningo-Prampram Constituency.

The NDC Youth organizer also visited the Apostlic Church polling station and Presbyterian Junior High School polling station in the Kpone-Katamanso Constituency. He concluded the tour with a visit to the Tema West Constituency, where he visited the Padmore Street School polling station number (1) centre 3 and Ramania Islamic school polling station.

During the tour it came to the fore that party agents at various polling stations have been harassing the registration officers over insu.

He posited during the trying times of war, the leaders who push the youth to engage in violence acts in the run up to elections, are the very people who travel to nearest peaceful countries on their diplomatic passports living the very people they brain washed to start the fight behind to suffer the consequences of their actions.

He added that violence acts must be avoided in the run-up to the 2012 general elections to safeguard the peace the country is enjoying in the volatile Sub-Region. He said this acts of panic calls on the part of polling agents came to his attention after tours of the Eastern Region, Volta Region, Ashanti Region and Brong Ahafo Region during the first phase of the Biometric Region exercise to familiarize with the exercise.

Spelling out some of his observations, he said the creation of some of the polling stations closer to class room blocks during classes hours must be avoided since it disrupt the children from concentrating on their studies.

He called on the Electoral Commission (EC) to provide canopies a bit away from class room blocks to save the situation of creating polling stations closer to class room blocks across the country.

Mr. Hlodze made this comment when he kick started another tour to also ascertain how smooth the second phase of the Biometric exercise is on going in the Greater Accra Region.

The tour, which is to advice all the polling agents of both the NDC and New Patriotic Party (NPP) to coexist and collaborate with the Electoral Commission (EC) officials during the process, took him to Afienya DC primary (A) polling station, Daweheya Methodist primary (B) in the Ningo-Prampram Constituency, Aposolic Church polling station and Presbyterian Junior High School polling station in the Kpone-Katamanso Constituency.

He concluded the tour with a visit to the Tema West Constituency, where he visited the Padmore Street school polling station number (1) centre 3, Ramania Islamic school polling station.

During the tour it came to the fore that the party agents at the various polling stations have been harassing the Registration Officers (RO’s) over flimsy issues thereby delaying the process of the exercise.

He appealed to the polling agents to desist from engaging in acts that ruin the smooth process of the registration exercise as these could derail country’s enviable records of holding smooth and peaceful elections in Africa.

‘We are have no place to go in the sub-region because majority of our neighbouring countries are up in flames so it incumbent on us to guard the peace the country is enjoying in the Sub-region’ he insisted.

He posited that during the trying times of war, the leaders who push the youth to spark violence during elections, run from the violence on their diplomatic passports, leaving those they had brainwashed to start the fight behind to suffer the consequences.

He advised that violent act must be avoided in the run- up to the 2012 general elections to safeguard the peace the country is enjoying in volatile Sub-region. He said acts of panic calls on the part of agents came to his attention when he first toured the Eastern region, Volta, Ashanti and Brong Ahafo regions during the first Biometric registration exercise to familiarize with the exercise.

Spelling out some of his observations, he said the creation of some of the polling stations close to classroom blocks during classes hours must be avoided since it distracts the children fronm concentrating on their studies.

He called on the Electoral Commission (EC) to provide canopies a bit away from class room blocks to save the situation of distributing school children during class hours. Meanwhile, the officers have deviced initiatives of registering security officers and nurses ahead of the queue to enable them return to work on time, as well as pregnant women and the elderly to save them from queuing for long.

Also noted is that the non-availability of electricity in some remote parts of the country is negatively affecting the exercise as the biometric equipment are to be charged with electricity, hence many parts without power have experienced one difficulty or the other in having the equipment powered for the exercise.