The National Chairman of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Johnson Asiedu Nketiah, announced the 'mother of all demonstrations' across the length and breadth of Ghana on September 17, 2024, against the Electoral Commission of Ghana (EC).
Addressing the media after filing the nomination of the Flagbearer of the NDC, John Dramani Mahama, at the head office of the EC on Monday, September 9, 2024, Asiedu Nketiah said that his party will be joined by other political parties and civil society organisations to demonstrate against the EC for failing to address issues with the 2024 voter register.
“A draft register is not a register. Today, if we have to do any election, we have to rely on the 2020 register… On the 17th of this month, the NDC is embarking on a massive nationwide demonstration in all 16 regional capitals.
“Descend on the Electoral Commission offices, and we in Accra would descend to the headquarters and present a further petition as to why we think that they should conduct themselves in a manner that would guarantee a peaceful, free, and fair election,” he said.
The NDC has called for an independent audit into the voter register after it said it found supposed irregularities in the register, a demand the EC has rejected.
The Director of Elections and IT of the NDC, Dr. Edward Omane Boamah, in a post shared on Facebook, outlined some of the issues his party has found in the register.
He pointed out that a forensic audit of the report would help assess the worthiness of the voter register in order to come up with measures to curb the defects in the register.
Some of the issues he listed include over 240,000 previous transfers being illegally added to the voters register, and over 15,000 unidentifiable voter transfer paths.
He also indicated that the party found about 4,000 new names had been wrongly deleted from the register.
Read his points about issues the NDC found in the voters register below:
The observation from the register so far
1. 243,540 previous transfers illegally added to 2024 transfers, including repetition of illegally transferred names.
2. 15,000+ unidentifiable voter transfer paths (due to fake registration of voters???) Where were they originally registered?
3. 3,957 voters in the 2023 register but deleted from the 2024 Provisional Register due to transfer.
4. 2,094 voters transferred to different polling stations but not found in the Absent Voter List as required by law.
5. Corrupt files not showing names and photos of the registered voters (what if this happens on election day?).
NB: The above observations only constitute the tip of an iceberg! The giant rotten meat is underneath the sea. Thus, we have deliberately not been tempted to disclose why such massive derangement can afflict the voters' register. But to technical minds, the answer is obvious! This being the case, we are approaching this engagement with the Electoral Commission with tact…
See Dr. Omane's full post below plus a video of Asiedu Nketiah's remarks:
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