We will fight to remove underage students from voters register – Muntaka

MP for Asawase and Minority Chief Whip, Mohammed Mubarak Muntaka, has accused Ghana’s electoral body, the EC of doing the incumbent government’s bidding by registering underage individuals in the electoral roll.

Mr Muntaka noted that the National Democratic Congress had in their possession evidence which suggests that the Electoral Commission registered students who had not yet turned 18 years.

While reviewing the voters registration exercise, the legislator lamented that the Jean Mensa-led Electoral Commission had resorted to making knee-jerk reactions in an attempt to appease the desperation of government.

Citing Kumasi Academy as an example, he disclosed that his party had found as many as 15 students who had been registered as eligible voters although they were not 18 years.

He intimated that the NDC were going to lead the charge to have all those under-aged persons removed from the electoral roll once the exhibition begins, stressing that they had solid proof to back their claims.

“…Many of the students that were registered were not 18. I want to encourage a lot of our colleagues across the country. WAEC has a website, they have a software where you can check the age of every student.

“And I can tell you, with those they registered at Kumasi Academy on a particular day we got as any as 15 that were under 18. We’re waiting for the exhibition, because during the exhibition you can get them out with evidence. Because you need to have the evidence. You cannot just say Muntaka is under 18, you need to have the evidence. Now many of them, we now have the evidence to show that they were under 18. And we’re going to fight to get them out of the register,” Muntaka told GhanaWeb in an exclusive interview.

The four-time Member of Parliament for Asawase constituency expressed worry about the Electoral Commission’s posture and several rushed decisions by the body. He questioned the neutrality of the electoral body when according to him, they had been acting out of desperation due to same by the incumbent government.

“You will see all these knee-jerk things done by the EC clearly pointing to the desperation. I don’t know why this should be the case because they are independent arbiters. The desperation of the ruling government is affecting them.

“But I just hope and pray; let’s just stick to the rule, let the rule work, don’t try to militarise the process,” he concluded.

The Electoral Commission (EC) Sunday, August 9, 2020, ended a two-day mop-up exercise as a follow-up to the official 37-day voters’ registration to ensure a credible register for the presidential and parliamentary elections.

The exercise started on June 30 and officially ended on August 6, in 33,367 polling stations, which was done in six phases with each phase assigned six days for eligible applicants to register.