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Senior Program Officer at the Ghana Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana), Mr Mensah Aborampah says the voter registration exercise characterised by violence does not come as a surprise as it is the basis for determining victory of a political party.

According to him, the election has three phases, namely the pre-election phase, the election phase and the post-election phase, thus, voter registration exercise, including limited voter registration being part of the pre-election phase, records the high rate of violence.

Speaking as a discussant on UTV’s Critical Issues Saturday, Mr Mensah who is also in charge of Security Desk at the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD) stressed that violence in the voter registration is on the ascendency since the Supreme Court ruling which said that the Court considers every vote in the ballot box as valid unless it is classified as a spoilt vote.

He added that political parties began to take their destinies into their hands when President Akufo-Addo then in opposition after the Supreme Court ruling on the 2012 election petition said that they will be more vigilant at the polling stations and the electoral process.

He stressed that many communicators of the various political parties interpreted former EC Boss, Dr Afari Gyan’s narration which suggests that every vote in the ballot boxes will be counted enjoined them to make sure that correct ones will go into the ballot boxes, hence, the violent nature of the voter registration exercise.

“ . . so our statements, our behaviour and our positions come together to heighten tension and violence in every election in the country," he indicated.

He explained that the voter register is the basic document that determines whether one will win an election or not; thus, the election team of the political parties are able to compute after the voter register has been compiled the number of who are able to register in their strongholds as every political party has a stronghold in the regions.

"Every political party has an election team and after the voter register has been compiled, they pick it up and each political party has their stronghold and they know over the years which region they pull more votes from. They will then assess the voter register to know their chances of winning the upcoming election and this is done by all the political parties, and so in the process of compiling the register, they will make sure that in their stronghold, as many people as qualified are able to register,” he disclosed.

He intimated that violence becomes imminent when the political parties are able to establish through the compilation of the voter register that the number of people who are supposed to register in their strongholds could not get into the register as they can conclude that the election will go in their favour or not.

“The Voter Register is the basic document to determine whether one will win an election or not," he emphasized.

He said it is therefore not surprising that the NDC is complaining that there has been a military deployment to the Volta Region which is their stronghold and other border regions.