Jean Mensa-led EC scheming to disenfranchise 1m voters – Asiedu Nketia

Over one million eligible voters will be disenfranchised given the modus operandi of the Electoral Commission of Ghana in organising the limited voter registration exercise ahead of the local assembly polls, the General Secretary of the main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), has said.

Mr Nketia said doing the registration at the election management body’s 250 district offices instead of conducting it within the electoral enclaves will cause huge problems.

Speaking at a symposium held by the Koforidua Technical University chapter of the Tertiary Education Institutions Network (TEIN) on the theme: ‘Current State of Ghana’ on Friday, 3 May 2019 in the Eastern Region, Mr Asiedu Nketia said the EC is “going to conduct an election and you [EC] are enjoined by the Constitution to make sure that every Ghanaian of 18 years and above is registered and would have the opportunity to cast their ballot. Then you intentionally developed a system which will disenfranchise a minimum of 1 million voters, and we are all quiet in this country. Where are we heading?”

The NDC General Secretary said: “Before we undertake any registration exercise of voters in Ghana, the first thing you do is – since you are going to register human beings of a certain age, the Electoral Commission is not mandated as an institution to make pronouncement of how many Ghanaians are of this age, the institution that does that is the Statistical Service of Ghana – … write to the Statistical Service [and find out] how many Ghanaians are of 18 years and above as of today, and they’ll give you the figures”.

“Even if you go by the most conservative estimate and you assume that nobody grew, all our ages were stagnant at some point in time or nobody gave birth in this country, at least between 2016 and 2019, a period of 3 years, can’t you get one million people who have entered the 18-year group?” he wondered, adding: “Jean Mensa wants us to accept that the number of Ghanaians who have entered the 18-year group and above is 300,000 in three years, so, this type of mathematics can only happen under Nana Akufo-Addo’s government.”