Stop bussing registrants - Ayariga

Founder and Leader of the All People’s Congress (APC), Hassan Ayariga, has condemned political parties bussing people to registration centres to get their names on Ghana’s voter roll.

Addressing a news conference on Thursday April 28, the day the limited registration exercise began, Mr Ayariga said political party representatives have no business at registration centres.

“You [political parties] call the voters to come out and register. It’s the duty of the EC,” he stated.

“Let us take this scenario. If, for instance, an NDC activist decides to go and bring 1,000 voters to register, believing that all these 1,000 members are going to vote for them, [but] on the D-day of voting, people listen to the APC’s policies and say: ‘I am not going to vote for the NDC because I believe in Ayariga’s vision and in his policies’, and they decide to vote for Ayariga, the NDC, believing that these 1,000 voters were meant for them, will cause chaos if they do not get additional 1,000 added to their votes.

“So, it is not their responsibility to push people to go and vote. It is a constitutional mandate and that mandate is the duty of the EC to educate people – those who are 18 – to go and register. What they are doing, I think, is not right.

“The EC does not have the authority or the power to tell political parties to go and bring members to register. It is the duty of our laws and our country that we should educate our youth that when it’s time for you to go and register, go do so.

“We in the APC are not sending members to go and bring people. We will educate you on what is necessary. If you think that it is good for you to go and register, please go and do that.”