Deputy General Secretary of the incumbent National Democratic Congress (NDC), Koku Anyidoho, has discounted claims by the New Patriotic Party (NPP) that the Electoral Commission is scheming to give some parties undue advantage in the November elections by refusing to compile a new voters’ register.
The NPP at a news conference on Thursday said the Electoral Commission’s posture suggests an attempt to manipulate the 2016 election in favour of one party.
The NPP has been calling for a new voters’ register, claiming the current one is flawed. The EC in response said the NPP’s claims were not strong enough to warrant a new register.
Addressing journalists at the party’s headquarters, the NPP’s Campaign Manager for the 2016 polls, Peter Mac Manu said the EC Chairperson Charlotte Osei, appears to be giving undue advantage to a particular party by her actions.
“The current register’s credibility has been questioned by no less body than the Supreme Court. The EC is determined to keep it in order to give a particular political party an undue and unfair advantage.”
Although Mac Manu fell short of naming any political party, the NDC’s Koku Anyidoho, said the EC is not doing any bidding for his party.
“I’m not too sure how it is that the EC is doing the bidding of the NDC. Maybe somehow the EC is speaking to the greater conscience of Ghanaians which the NDC is also doing; and the NPP is not speaking to that greater conscience so they think that the EC is doing the bidding of the NDC,” he added.
He further questioned the credibility of evidence provided by the NPP, saying they are clearly wasting everybody’s time.
“From day one they produced a fake register…the EC organized a conference at Alisa hotel, they couldn’t come and give any evidence to substantiate the fake register they used. Subsequently they went to bring somebody else from Togo claiming to be the spokesperson of the opposition leader in Togo. That one was also exposed. So why are we wasting our time on the NPP?” Koku Anyidoho challenged the NPP to produce the rest of the evidence on allegations that the register is flawed. “So the opposition NPP makes more sense than the greater Ghanaian public?… why are we wasting time on the NPP. They claim they have evidence, let them bring it. At the point when they came out with this thing, they said it was 10% of work in progress and they are going to provide 90% of the extra work in progress. Where is the extra 90%? Why are we not pressuring the NPP to produce the 90% of work in progress and we want to hold on to the supposed 10% to create confusion in this country. Let allow Bawumia and Akufo-Addo to bring the 90% from Burkina Faso, Niger, Mali and Ivory Coast then we can say they have a case,” he added.