The National Youth Organizer of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Salam Mustapha, has alleged that the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) is planning to disturb the limited voters registration exercise by the Electoral Commission of Ghana, set to commence on Tuesday, September 12, 2023.
According to him, the NDC are engaging thugs, whom they would deploy at the limited voter's registration centres across the country to disrupt the process, citinewsroom.com reports.
The NPP youth organiser, therefore, called on the Ghana Police Service to prepare accordingly and deal with any threat at the registration centres.
“The NDC intends to misbehave a lot as the process begins because they want to give the Electoral Commission a bad name. They are mobilizing thugs, bandits, and crooks across the country to attack district officers and other places where the registration will be ongoing.
“I want to urge the Ghana Police Service to be on the lookout for such clandestine and dastardly behaviour from the NDC and it should not be tolerated. We cannot allow dangerous people to destroy our democracy,” he is quoted to have said during a live interaction on his social media platforms.
Salam Mustapha also called on Ghanaians to retain the NPP in power because it is the only party that can bring the needed development to the country.
Background:
The Electoral Commission of Ghana announced that it would commence a registration exercise for eligible Ghanaians who turned 18 years old after the 2020 registration exercise and other eligible voters who could not register on Tuesday, September 12, 2023.
The Chairperson of the Electoral Commission, Jean Mensa, who made this disclosure at a press briefing in Accra, dubbed, ‘Let the Citizen Know’, on August 17, 2023, indicated that the registration exercise would end on Monday, October 2, 2023.
She added that the exercise would be held at all the 268 district offices of the EC across the country.
“The voter’s registration exercise will afford Ghanaians who have attained the age of 18 years, since the last registration of 2020 and others who are more than 18 years, but for various reasons couldn’t register during the 2020 registration exercise.
“The EC will embark on voter registration in all 268 district offices of the commission. The exercise will be held from September 12 to October 2,” she said.
However, five opposition political parties jointly filed an injunction to halt the ongoing limited voters' registration exercise.
The five political parties that have come together to file this injunction are the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Progressive People's Party (PPP), Convention People's Party (CPP), People's National Convention (PNC), and the All People’s Congress (APC).
They describe the exercise by the Electoral Commission as an unlawful and unreasonable decision to restrict centres for the upcoming Limited Voter Registration exercise to their District Offices.
According to them, the EC’s decision to restrict the centres of voter registration to their district offices has the potential to deprive many eligible voters of their right to be registered as voters and to vote in public elections.
In the writ by the parties, they stated “a declaration that upon a true and proper interpretation of articles 45(a) and 42 the constitution, the decision of the 2nd Defendant to undertake the 2023 limited/continues voter registration at the District offices of the 2nd Defendant instead of undertaking same on the basis of electoral areas will result in voter suppression particularly in rural constituencies of the country, and is thus unconstitutional as it violates the rights of the first-time voters to register and vote,” part of the writ stated.
The court is yet to rule on the applications.
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National Youth Organizer of the New Patriotic Party Salam Mustapha