NDC rubbishes Bawumia’s claim that foreigners vote in Ghana's election

The Deputy International Relations Director of the National Democratic Congress, Dr Carl Arhin, has rubbished claims that the NDC bus French-speaking nationals in the West Africa region into the country to vote during elections.

According to him, the New Patriotic Party vice presidential candidate, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, recently alleged that the NDC during elections, bus nationals of Togo, Burkina Faso, Benin and Ivory Coast to vote. But speaking at the launch of the NDC campaign in Ivory Coast at the weekend, Dr Arhin denied the claim and explained that the people who move from those countries to vote in Ghana are Ghanaian nationals in the diaspora.

He said Dr Bawumia failed to do his homework well on the issue, noting if he had verify his claim, he would not have established the fact that those are Ghanaian nationals working and living in the French-speaking West African countries.

Dr. Arhin argued that the thousands of supporters who showed up for the NDC campaign launch Sunday has exposed the aspiring vice president and vindicated the leadership of the party on the issue of diaspora voters.

Addressing the supporters in Abidjan, he outlined a number of developmental projects by President John Mahama, promising the NDC will do many more of such projects should they give the party another four-year mandate under the leadership of President Mahama. He urged them to vote massively for President Mahama who is seeking re-election for a second term of office on December 7.

He said the development of Ghana remains the prime concern of government and the primary responsibility of President Mahama.

The Ivory Coast branch chairman of the party, Alhaji Shirazu Imam, in an interview said, many Ghanaians living in the French West African country, were from all the ten regions of Ghana.

He said the assumption by the opposition that foreigners were part of the electorates who travel to Ghana to vote during elections was simply imaginative and unsustainable.

He explained the efforts made by the branch executives of the party to galvanize support for the NDC, only for the opposition to describe these people as foreigners.

According to Alhaji Shirazu, many Ghanaians living in the French countries wouldn’t be bothered if voting in Ghana eluded them because of their work schedules. “But as executives, we had to work hard to convince them to understand their civic responsibilities as citizens of Ghana, hence the need to vote to choose people who must lead the country” he said.