Voters registration: Fact-checking NDC’s claim of lives lost only under Akufo-Addo’s regime

Claim: No lives ever lost during voter registrations except under Akufo-Addo – NDC

Verdict: FALSE

Explanation

The National Democratic Congress (NDC) has claimed it is only under the Akufo-Addo presidency that lives have been lost in a voter registration exercise.

Addressing journalists at a press briefing in Accra on Thursday, August 13, 2020, Director of Elections of the opposition NDC, Mr Elvis Afriyie Ankrah said:

“As you are aware, the voter registration exercise was characterised by unprecedented violence resulting in severe injuries to scores of Ghanaians. For the first time in the history of the Fourth Republic, innocent citizens have lost their lives by merely going out to exercise their democratic right to register and vote. This is simply sad and unacceptable”, Mr Ankrah alleged.

The NDC said it, “rejects Akufo-Addo’s claims that he was not aware of the incidents of violence and voter suppression around the country”.

“If he claims he doesn’t know what is going on, doesn’t he watch television or listen to radio or read newspapers? Doesn’t he tweet and make posts on Facebook every blessed day? If he doesn’t do any of the above, what happened to the routine security briefs that he gets as Commander-in-Chief?” Elvis Afriyie Ankrah asked.

For the most part, the Electoral Commission (EC) in the just-ended 2020 voter registration exercise recorded incidents of violence in some of its registration centres that resulted in the loss of lives and property. Click here

Verification

To substantiate Mr Elvis Afriyie Ankrah’s claim on the loss of lives only under the Akufo-Addo administration in regards to voter registration, our checks revealed some mass and limited registration exercises’ in Ghana have witnessed some incidents of violence.

For limited registration exercises, which often occur after a mass registration exercise is conducted to allow for persons who could not register for their identification cards, have also witnessed some acts of violence over the period.

A case in point was in 2008 where a limited registration exercise witnessed attacks on journalists and registrants by some party supporters.

GhanaWeb contacted Elections Security Analyst, Adib Saani who lamented voter registration incidents in Ghana were not new and have dated as far back as 2008, 2012 and presently 2020.

Mr Saani said; "the state ought to revisit the subject of recurring vigilantism and infiltration of vigilante groups that keep causing mayhem resulting in the loss of lives and property in some electoral areas."

"I propose that we need to stop the situation where Parliamentary candidates move from one polling station to another because the political parties already have representatives and it's not the work of the Parliamentary candidate to go to polling stations to instruct election officials to do their work," he added.

Meanwhile, a publication on Ghana’s 2008 election as published by the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), Click here identified some of such incidents.

The publication was titled; “Ghana: Pre-election violence and irregularities worry watchdogs”.

The publication posted by ‘IRIN’ showed Independent observers and civil society groups indicating Ghana’s 2008 voter registration was marred by violence and irregularities in some centres.

It noted; “In the north of Ghana, supporters of the two main political parties - the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) - vandalised registration centres on August 2, 2008, and gunshots were heard in Tamale, the capital of the northern region, during the voters registration.”

It added, some journalists covering the voters registration in Tamale also in the Northern Region were attacked by supporters from both parties [NDC, NPP] at a registration centre.

The publication further revealed, one of the journalists attacked was filling a report on underage voters allegedly bused to a registration station by NDC supporters.

Four days later in the Volta Region, the independent observers report said on August 6, 2008, one person was found to have sustained serious knife wounds and died a few weeks later with two others arrested by the police amid a voter registration-related clash.

However, representatives of the NPP and NDC contacted by the independent observers, IRIN denied their supporters were involved in violence or illegal registration activities.

Civil Society Group, the Coalition of Domestic Election Observers (CODEO), on their part on August 4, 2008 in a report issued Click here lamented the violence and said registration irregularities have been widespread.

A deputy chairman of the Electoral Commission, David Adanzee-Kangah at the time in 2008 said the disturbances are unprecedented in Ghana's recent political landscape.

Meanwhile, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the 2008 general elections won the mandate to govern under the leadership of the former President, John Evans Atta Mills and his Vice, John Dramani Mahama.

Conclusion

The claims by the Director of Elections for the opposition NDC, Elvis Afriyie Ankrah contains no element of parody or satire but clear falsehood purposely twisted to misinform the general public in claiming it is only under the Akufo-Addo administration that lives have been lost in a voter registration exercise.

GhanaWeb, therefore, finds the claim to be false and misguided.