Opinions of Friday, 15 February 2013
Columnist: Jackson, Margaret
…Only 705 Diplomats Registered
By Margaret Jackson
February 14, 2013
This might not be welcoming news for the NPP members and supporters who, up 'til now, have not been able to read between the lines that they are being led astray. But for the sake of posterity, I must tell it all in spite of the insults from peeved NPP staunch supporters.
The lawyers representing twice-defeated NPP former flagbearer, Nana Akufo-Addo, his running-mate, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia and NPP Chair, Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey on Tuesday February 12, 2013, received the foreign voters register from the Electoral Commission (EC) as ordered by the Supreme Court.
But the hopes of the NPP of raising red flag and amplifying it to ginger the hopes of their supporters after they have received the information from the EC, has totally been diminished as they found to their uttermost surprise that no Ghanaian voted abroad during the 2012 Elections.
Another bombshell that has hit the NPP and has sent them reeling for cover was when they discovered that out of the list of 2,350 Ghanaian diplomats in foreign missions only 705 registered to vote in the 2012 Elections. The NPP folks were hoping that the EC would present voters registration list of 241,000 people as Ghanaian diplomats who registered abroad.
The NPP has been spreading false rumours around which has been roundly accepted by their supporters that the EC registered 241,000 Ghanaian diplomats who actually voted in the 2012 Elections. That is why the NPP supporters have been jumping around that they have a trove of information that will confirm their bogus suspicion that the EC massaged the votes in favour of President Mahama. But with this information from the EC which even gives a breakdown of all the foreign missions and the number of people who actually registered, Ghanaians will begin to see the truth in the whole matter.
I have taken pains to explain that the 241,000 registered voters that were placed in a special voter register by the EC have nothing to do with the Ghanaian diplomats, but the NPP die-hards will have nothing to do with my explanation because they have already made up their minds on what they falsely believe.
But with the details from the EC, the NPP will now be forced to reverse their notes on how to brief their supporters who may be more confused now than ever before.
I have stated in one of my articles that the EC did a mop-up voters registration exercise in September 2012 to capture those who could not register during the first voters registration exercise in March/April 2012.
I would like to put it on record again that during the mop-up registration exercise, the EC created a special voters register and lumped the number of registered people into that register. That is the 241,000 people we have been talking about all this while. The list includes the residents of Akuse, Ghanaians on peace keeping duties, students on government scholarships, prisoners and other Ghanaians who for one reason or the other could not be registered when the registration exercise started in March 2012.
If what I am saying is not true, I bet the NPP would have held a press conference immediately they received the information from the EC. But the atmosphere surrounding Nana Akufo-Addo is all hushed because their dreams have been totally shattered with the information provided by the EC.
The failure of the NPP to jump on the evidence by the EC is raising some serious eyebrows, with some saying that the party is struggling to contain the news. This must be worrying if you are indeed a supporter of the NPP because you may be wondering why the lawyers have failed to utter a single word after they received the information from the EC.
At this point I will just leave readers to form their own opinions whilst they keep talking about this story till they hear from me again.
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