Wontumi blasts Electoral Commission

Ashanti Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Bernard Antwi Bosiako, popularly called ‘Wontumi,’ has lampooned the Electoral Commission (EC) for deliberately deleting a staggering 50,000 names from the electoral register in the Ashanti Region.

He claimed that the EC had deleted the names from the electoral register, ostensibly to change the electoral fortunes of the NPP – which has the largest following in the region – in 2016.

The NPP regional chairman, who was addressing the media on Monday, charged the EC to quickly stop the ongoing voter register exhibition and restore the missing names.

He also demanded that the EC should provide all the political parties with copies of the electoral register so as to help erase any doubts about its (EC) operations so as to avert a possible civil strife in the country.

Wontumi, with a grim face to display his fury over the development, said the EC intentionally victimized the NPP during the 2012 elections which eventually favoured the National Democratic Congress (NDC) “and this nearly plunged the country into civil war.”

He sternly cautioned that any attempt by the EC to cheat the NPP in order to help the NDC to win the 2016 elections on a silver platter might spell doom for the country, urging the EC to do the right thing.

According to him, he had in his possession a copy of the names of people that were registered by the EC in the Ashanti Region when it (EC) embarked on a voter registration exercise early this year.

Giving statistics to buttress his claim of the missing names, Wontumi noted that 53,102 males of 18 years and 52,176 females also of 18 years, were registered in the region during the limited registration exercise.

He said 24,934 males, 19 years old, as against 22,118 females of the same age, were also registered, adding that males of 20 years and above who were registered numbered 28,446 as against 20,627 of females also of the same age.

The NPP capo noted that people with hand deformities, whose faces were captured by the EC machines during the registration exercise stood at 10, adding that people whose parents led them to the centres to register for the first time were 8,013.

Wontumi disclosed that disabled people that were registered in the region stood at 142, and that a total of 211,440 people were registered in the region - out of which 1,866 had their registrations challenged.

He said even if the challenge was appropriate, ideally, the number of the registered people should reduce from 211,440 to 209,574 “but to the horror of the NPP, about 50,000 names have been deleted from the electoral register.”

Wontumi said about 861 names had been deleted from the Atonsu Electoral Area at Asokwa Constituency in Kumasi alone, adding that the EC claimed that the 50,000 people, whose names had been scrapped, indulged in multiple registrations.

The NPP guru expressed doubt about the excuse being given by the EC which he claimed was aimed at weakening the NPP’s share of votes during the 2016 polls. He charged the EC to produce concrete evidence to prove its wild allegation.

The press conference was graced by Sam Pyne, the NPP scribe in the region and Andy Owusu, Wontumi’s Programmes Manager.