What does it take for Ghana’s Electoral Commission to decide what to do in the current disagreement concerning the voters register?
The EC has solicited and received what it called “credible evidence” to show why we need a new register after Dr. Bawumia presented evidence of more than 76,000 people voting in Togo and Ghana.
That number of people voting on both sides of the border alone should alarm every Ghanaian or Togolese that there is something wrong.
Sure, there are many of these who may be dual citizens, but more than 76,000 coming out of the vetting of only 10% of the total register should indicate to every reasonable person that there is something wrong.
The Electoral Commission and its newly installed leader are engaged in attempts to pass the buck, and this is why: Appointed by President Mahama from the NDC side, it would be unthinkable for Mrs. Osei to betray her benefactor.
She really is in a no win situation: if she declares we need a new register, the NDC and her benefactor will not like it; if she declares we do not need a new register, the opposition parties would be upset; now through IT companies, she want someone else to decide for her. Perhaps what follows would help her decide:
1996 Election, Volta statistics (EC Ghana)
Total population 1,274,197
Registered voters 893,534 70.12% of total population
Population under 18 ABOUT 47% IMPOSSIBLE STATISTICS!
HEADLINES: General News | 23 April 2003 Volta Region Voter's Register Bloated N Tongu Pop 130,388 52.6% voting rate Expected pop 68,584
Reg. voters 85,558 65.62% voting rate Bloating 19.8% more than expected
Once the bloating was started under Rawlings, there has been no turning back.
NDC recruited foreigners to vote- Ken Korankye December 15, 2012 by Ghana Reporters
The Editor-in-Chief of the Daily Searchlight newspaper, Kenneth Agyei Korankye, has alleged that the National Democratic Congress brought in some foreign nationals into the country to vote for them in the general elections. He said he has in possession of a very credible video tape to prove to the whole world that the NDC truly stole the verdict of the Ghanaian people.
Daily Guide newspaper has reported that 15 Togolese in the Ahanta West District were allowed to take part in the just ended limited voter registration exercise.
The incident which took place at the Bokoro Registration Centre in the Ahanta West District on Monday August 11, was confirmed by Steve Opoku-Mensah, Western Regional Director of the Electoral Commission (EC). He added that the EC official involved would be blacklisted.
Fortunately, EC officials were able to retrieve the identity cards of these Togolese and cancelled their registration.
Do you think Asiedu Nketia would have turned these Togolese away? Shameful!
Daily Guide, 24 August 2015 NDC boys spill beans over Togolese voters
Some disappointed youth of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the Volta Region have finally confessed their ‘sins’, revealing how they recruited Togolese nationals to vote in Ghana’s 2012 and previous general elections.
Led by one Robert Tetteyfio Adjase, the group narrated how they brought in several Togolese to vote in Ghana. Members of the group included Hohoe chairman, Harker Brempong; Ketu South chairman, Doe Gadekah; Public Relations Officer (PRO), Robert Kabutey and Victor Bogah. They maintain that the current register is riddled with names of Togolese from Aflao to Nkwanta in the northern Volta and that the over 76,000 Togolese found on the Ghanaian register was just an insignificant number, compared to what really is the case.
Adjase says because “The NDC and its leadership know that when a new voters’ register is compiled they will lose the 2016 general elections because in the Volta Region, when it’s time for registration, a lot of big men come and then we cross over to the other side of the border, bring in some Togolese, explain to them what we want them to do and then we give them motorbikes, a lot of things, promises, especially this health insurance thing… it is true, we brought people from Togo to come and register; the same people have Ghana’s voter ID cards and Togo ID cards.”
According to Adjase, because Togolese did not enjoy services like the health insurance, they (he and his colleague) used to assist those Togolese to secure Ghana’s National Health Insurance Scheme (NHS) cards which enabled them to register when the voters’ registration exercise was open, to enable them come and vote on election day.
“So they have the health insurance; that’s the promise the NDC has given them, that you can go to hospital free in the country (Ghana),” Adjase narrated, adding that “When they go, we bring them back, then they come and register and later come and vote.”
In return for their votes, some of these Togolese were given free motorbikes and were also able to access Ghana’s national health insurance system.
“When you go to Kpedze, you go to Aflao, Kpetoe, Agotime and other places, Nive, Shia, that is where these things have been done. When they go, they see the chiefs, they beat the gong gong, the people come and then they start registering them,” he narrated. “Nobody is telling me what to say. It is the work we have been doing and some of my boys. We have been writing the names;
even some of us can even vote about 10 to 20 times…Sometimes they bring the voting things and you will just be inside and then be thumb-printing them, Pam! Pam! Pam!”
In view of this, Adjase and his colleague disappointed NDC youth, who have defected to the NPP, insisted that the “voters’ register must be changed. If really the NPP or any different political party wants to come to power in 2016, the EC has to replace the register or else it will remain the same. It is not because of my personal or the group’s interest; we want Ghana to change so that when foreigners enter, they will say that yes we are proud to see these people are Ghanaians…Go to the villages in the Volta Region and see, there are people who can’t get one square meal a day. There is no pipe borne water. They cannot even pay for school fees. The youth have to rise up and take the country on our shoulders and make sure we project Ghana because we have all it takes to become a good country.”
Explanation through Dual Citizenship
Surely, there are many along Ghana’s borders who have a legitimate claim to dual citizenship. However, nobody can be born in two countries. By birth, one claims citizenship. With a legitimate birth certificate in hand, one can secure all vital documents of a citizen. By heritage or application, one can also claim citizenship. In the latter case, it is not a simple matter of declaring yourself a dual citizen, and by that crisscross the border to vote on both sides. Below is a sample of what it takes to have dual citizenship:
Dual Citizenship Scheme The Ghana High Commission in the UK commenced the processing of the Dual Citizenship Scheme with effect from Friday, November 1, 2002 in accordance with the provisions of the Citizenship Act 2002 (Act 591).
Applicants eligible for Dual citizenship are those who hold citizenship of any country in addition to the citizenship of Ghana.
In all instances, all applicants are required by law to provide evidence of their Ghanaian nationality or their country of birth.
They would be required to provide the following particulars to be accompanied by four-passport size photographs.
Birth certificates or passports - Parents' nationality - (passports) Or voters ID card, Birth certificate of Parents Or British or other non Ghanaian passports British passport holders born in Ghana must provide their Certificate of Naturalisation. All applicants are required to complete a Dual Citizenship application form and processing fees of £130.00.
How many of the “crisscrossers” have gone through any documentation?
We’ve been busy opening branches in Togo – General Mosquito Sep 1, 2015
General Secretary of the governing National Democratic Congress Johnson Asiedu Nketia says he is baffled that the party which in 2007 was pushing for a law to allow Ghanaians living abroad
to vote will today seek to disenfranchise some 76,000 voters because it believes they are foreigners.
So Dr. Bawumia’s claims are no longer “concert,” “fabricated,” or “from space?”
According to the NDC, they are Ghanaians living in Togo who return to vote on election day.
“When they were busily opening branches in Germany, I was busy opening branches in Togo and Ivory Coast.” He urged the party supporters to get into the neighboring countries, convince them to come and register anytime the EC opens registration to enable them take part in the general election.
“Why don’t we close the airports?” he wondered insisting “Ghanaians in London are not better than Ghanaians in Burkina Faso”.
Those from London hold documents to prove they are Ghanaians, most of those from Togo don’t. You may win votes for your party, but you are destroying your country in the end. What good is the party when the country is down the drain?
NDC paid GHC 500,000 to recruit foreigners – Ken Agyapong alleges
New Patriotic Party (NPP) Member of Parliament (MP) for Assin Central, Kennedy Ohene Agyapong has alleged that the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) paid an amount of GHC500,000 to persons to help recruit foreigners to register in Ghana as voters. He said on Thursday that the recruiters included one gold miner in Wenchi in the Brong Ahafo region who was charged with recruiting Burkinabes.
“Some females were also contracted with recruiting persons from Ivory Coast…the NDC promised to give each voter 2000 Cfa and they have actually given them 1000 CFA for registering with the promise of given them a further 1000 when they come to vote…”
‘Let’s not pretend; voters’ register is bloated’ – Nana Konadu Former First Lady and Founder of the National Democratic Party, NDP, Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings, has backed calls for a new voters’ register for Ghana, alluding to the assertions that the current register is bloated.
“I believe that it will serve the interest of Ghana and Ghanaians if the voters’ register is revisited and we all re-register and weed out all the ghost names and foreign names, to see the real potential of the Ghanaian voter and let them vote for who they want. I think it is in our interest as a nation to do that because to pretend that we do not know that it is bloated and all that is a farce”.
NDC Should Have No Fears of Register – Rawlings Posted By: Emelia Ethelon: October 15, 2015
Former President Ghana J.J Rawlings walked into an uproar over the compilation of a new credible voter’s register when leaders of the LMVCA pressure group met him at his residence.
Mr Rawlings said although 2016 will be a challenging electoral process, the “stress can be minimized” if various stakeholders guarantee the creation of a reliable voter’s register.
The former President said the sitting NDC administration should not fear about the proposal for a reliable voters’ register.
“As a sitting government, I think if we feel pretty confident about that register, we should have no fears about doing what needs to be done to win the confidence, to take away doubts. ”
MISTRUST IN THE ELECTORAL COMMISSION
EC: Ghanaians Abroad Can’t Vote In 2012 Elections 29-Mar-2012
Ghanaians living outside the borders of Ghana cannot vote in this year’s presidential and parliamentary elections, the Electoral Commission (EC) has served notice According to the electoral body, all Ghanaians living abroad who are bent on voting in the December elections have to return home to register in the ongoing biometric voters registration exercise The acting Director of Public Affairs of the EC, Christian Owusu Parry, was emphatic on the issue saying all eligible Ghanaian voters living outside the country have no option than to come down to register else they will be disenfranchised.
“They have to come back home to register,” Mr. Parry stressed.
EC Fails to Prove 241,000 Foreign Votes Peacefmonline.com
The Electoral Commission has failed to prove the existence of 241,524 voters abroad.
After seven days of waiting, all the Electoral Commission could produce was a list of 705 Ghanaians representing Ghanaians in foreign missions, Ghanaians working in other international bodies and Students on Government Scholarship as well as a list of 2,178 returning peacekeepers
When Dr. Afari Gyan falsely claimed that more than 240,000 Ghanaians voted abroad, none of the deputy commissioners challenged that assertion. Is this the same EC we are supposed to trust?
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