The Upper East Regional Deputy Communication Officer for the opposing National Democratic Congress (NDC) has noted with concern that the restriction of the limited voter registration exercise by the Electoral Commission (EC) has discouraged and triggered many registrants not to register for the identification card.
This, he observed, has denied them the opportunity to make decisions with regards to electing who to lead them, as they could not enroll themselves in the voter register.
’’We have stated earlier that restricting the exercise would have the tendency to disenfranchise a lot of Ghanaians due to the difficulty posed to registrants from distant communities in accessing the district offices, and now we can all attest to it with the target set by the EC and what it has registered in any case who set the target“, he stated
“We have the District Assembly Elections coming, and every person of 18 years of age and of sound mind has the right to register and vote, so why would the EC prevent people from voting in this election with the notion that it would open for another registration when there are people who could register now to participate in the election?” he quizzed.
According to him, the excruciating hardship that people are facing is enough to have deterred people from coming out of their homes to register, coupled with the cost of travel, worsened the plight of most registrants.
Mr. Atuasi alleged that “the EC has something fishy that we don`t know,” but the NDC is always ahead of them.
“They think that they are so smart that they will not open it now because they have other limitations that they would bring afterwards that would still limit people, if not what prevented them from doing this. The EC wants to introduce the Ghana card as the sole means of identification; that is what they are seeking to do, and we have heard Bossman Asare making comments in that regard”, he added.
Source:A1radioonline.Com|101.1MHz|Gilbert Azeem Tiroog|Bolgatanga
