Togo's opposition confirms authenticity of NPP evidence

A leading member of the main opposition political party in Togo has confirmed that his country’s voters’ register which the New Patriotic Party (NPP) presented to the Ghana’s Electoral Commission (EC) is an authentic one.

Masseme Esse, who is also the Advisor to the Togo main opposition leader, Jean-Pierre Fabre, said, “I can confirm that I have seen the Togo register presented by the NPP, and it is the same that we used for our elections”.

Masseme Esse was speaking on Atinka AM Drive on the current brouhaha as to whether the NPP presented the original copy of Togo’s voters’ register to the EC to buttress its claim that Ghana’s register is bloated with names of Togolese nationals.

The ANC-Alliance Nationale Pour Le Changement (National Alliance for Change) representative said, “I have been following the issue. I read about it, and I saw the names and pictures presented by the NPP to the EC and indeed, from our checks, those people were on the Togo register”.

He added that “the NPP is not lying about the register, maintaining that the register put out by the NPP is the exact copy of Togo’s register “and shows all the details as we have it in our register”.

Mr. Esse said his party also raised similar concerns during the last election in Togo and said it was the main reason why President Mahama went to Togo. “He came to settle the issue peacefully between the government and the opposition. We solved the problem, and the register was audited, but Ghana must do a new voters register,”. Mr Esse added.

The ANC-Alliance Nationale Pour Le Changement official said it would be better for Ghana to do a new voters register “because if they just audit it, they cannot get to the bottom of the problem and that will bring a confusion”. . Mr. Esse was shocked at the fact that the Togolese EC refused to give its register to the Ghanaian EC for verification. “I’m surprised the Togo EC failed to give our voters register to Ghana, and I will be surprised if Togo says its register is not bloated because we were given a soft copy and we also realized it was bloated”.