The NPP says the Electoral Commission is shirking its responsibility to keep a credible voter’s register after the commission maintained it cannot remove the names of some foreign nationals.
The Commission’s explanation that removing the names would be discriminatory and arbitrary has been criticized by the NPP as an “unfortunate excuse”.
“This excuse is just like saying that because the police is unable to arrest a thief in one part of the country the police will be discriminating and acting arbitrarily if they arrest another person in another part of the country.”
At a press conference Thursday, former NPP Chairman Mac Manu argued the EC was misrepresenting the final report by the panel constituted to look into the NPP’s call for a new voter’s register.
The NPP has insisted there are some 76,000 Togolese nationals on the register who ought to be removed.
The EC has explained Ghanaian law allows dual citizens the right to vote. But the NPP has responded that a person seeking dual citizenship needs to go through the process at the Ghana Immigration Service first.
The NPP says its checks with the Immigration Service shows no evidence that Togolese nationals have sought Ghanaian citizenship before the 2012 elections.
The party also maintained that since it raised concerns about Togolese on the electoral roll, no citizen of the neighbouring country has come out to refute the party’s claim that he is not entitled to vote.
The NPP says the issue has been sufficiently raised and discussed in Togolese media. If any dual citizen in Togo was truly a Ghanaian, he would have lodged a protest against the NPP’s claims.
Source- Myjoyonline
