NPP is working to delete names of NDC supporters from voters register - Koku Anyidoho
The ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) has said it has uncovered a plot by the New Patriotic Party (NPP) to disenfranchise known NDC sympathisers in the Suame constituency of the Ashanti region.
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According to the NDC, the NPP had compiled a list NDC sympathisers in the Suame constituency in Kumasi and labeled them as dead.
The plan was to present their names to the Electoral Commission (EC) as dead for them to be expunged from the voter’s register, thereby denying them the opportunity to vote in this year’s general elections, he NDC said.
The Deputy General Secretary of the NDC, Mr Koku Anyidoho made those allegations at a press conference in Kumasi on Thursday.
According to Mr Anyidoho, the motive was to enhance the NPP’s chances to win massively in the Ashanti region.
He said two NPP supporters, Atta Marfo and Frank Owusu Yeboah, were arrested on April 11 this year by the Suame police for allegedly marking names of some NDC supporters as dead people to aid their party make a case to the EC.
Checks by Graphic Online at the Suame police station indicated that the two NPP arrested NPP supporters have been transferred to the Central Police station in Kumasi.
Mr Anyidoho said the party would pursue the case to its logical conclusion.
The Minority Leader in Parliament, Mr Osei Kyei-Mensah Bonsu and the Ashanti regional Chairman of the NPP were alleged to have bailed the suspects while at Suame police station.
‘It is very shocking and disturbing that honourable Bonsu’s Suame constituency should be the lead actor in this despicable attempt to rig the 2016 general election in the Ashanti region,’ he said.
The party presented two of such voters labeled as dead in the register to the media to back their allegation.
“In areas like New Edubiase, Adansi Asokwa and Fomena, a plethora of reports point to extreme harassment and intimidation that NDC supporters suffer at the hands of the NPP. In Adansi Asokwa, the name of K. T. Hammond was widely mentioned as chief instigator of all the harassment and intimidation that takes place in that constituency,” he further alleged.
The deputy general secretary said the party would not succumb to any intimidating tactics by the NPP to harass people of northern extractions and Ewes resident in the Ashanti region “no matter the plans for them to win power at all cost through the backdoor.”
“Elections are won with good candidates and good messages that give hope to the electorate; elections are not won with bad candidates who divide rather than unite.
“If Osei Kyei-Mensah Bonsu and his Ashanti caucus in parliament have realised that they are facing an uphill task of convincing people to vote for the NPP, it will be better for them to repackage their candidate in the person of Nana Akufo-Addo, rather than try to move the nation in the direction of chaos, mayhem and unnecessary possible bloodletting via their attempt to disenfranchise legitimate Ghanaians,’ Mr Anyidoho said.
When contacted for a comment, the Minority Leader, Mr Osei-Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu dismissed the claims by the NDC.
He told Accra based radio station, Joy FM that the NPP was in no position to remove names from the register and therefore described the claims as ridiculous because the NPP has no intention of disenfranchising the NDC’s supporters.
“The voters register given to political parties is a public document, what we’ve been trying to do, and what I’ve charged my people to do is to look at the 2012 register and identify who is where. People might have used certain residential addresses to register, but might have moved away from those places to live at other places," he said.
“So the charge to political party activists in the Suame constituency is to go round to see who is living where and who registered where.”
He said through that people who are dead or have relocated from the constituency but still have their names in the register will be identified and with that information the EC will be alerted to ensure that the names of those people are not used by unscrupulous persons to vote during the November polls, he said.
