Opinions of Tuesday, 29 November 2016

Columnist: Adofo, Rockson

More tricks by President Mahama to influence election 2016

By Rockson Adofo


From credible information gathered from some affected persons, President Mahama and his NDC government have once again resulted to a policy intended to influence the 7 Dec ember 2016 election in their favour.

The President through the Education Ministry is cunningly stopping students from the tertiary institutions from leaving school campuses to proceed home or to go to the polling stations where they have been registered on to the electoral roll to cast their votes come the actual Election Day, thus, Wednesday, 7 December 2016.

The same thing goes for teachers. They will not be allowed to leave classrooms or quit lessons to go to the polling stations to exercise their franchise. In previous governments and elections, teachers were not only allowed to register eligible citizens on to the electoral roll but also, they were selected to man polling stations on general election days.

However, under the Mills/Mahama and Mahama/Arthur-Amissah NDC-led governments, teachers have been banned from exercising the mentioned roles to the point of dubiously trying to deprive them of their right to universal adult suffrage as just explained above.

Nurses and Medical doctors have also not been left out of the loop. They are equally in danger of being denied the casting of their votes by the same policy as intended for students, teachers and nurses.

The headmasters and principals of the public schools have decided not to release the students to proceed to their various polling stations to vote. It will be recalled that most students were not given the opportunity to register their names on to the electoral register during the few days’ limited voter registration exercise announced by the Chair of the Electoral Commission, Mrs. Charlotte Osei, that shameless election-rigging accomplice.

Again, the NDC are planning to let their polling station agents and the Electoral Officers managing the polling stations in the NPP strongholds cream their hair with some special black ink on the voting day. The objective is to spoil as many cast ballots as they possibly can. How could that be possible, one may ask?

Immediately before the counting of the ballots, they will ruffle their hair using their hands to get some of the black ink on to their palms and fingers. When they start unfolding the ballots (ballot papers) for counting, their fingers will be touching the faces of the ballots leaving fingerprints in other spaces or on faces other than, or in addition to, the one genuinely selected by the voter.

When black ink is found in more than one place on the ballot, the affected ballot will be declared null and void.

The Electoral Commission has intentionally printed ballot books containing one hundred ballots (ballot papers) with serial numbers on the back of the booklet different from those on the ballots therein contained. Also, some of the ballots in the booklet are duplicated with same serial numbers. Some of the ballots to be issued to biometrically verified voters to enable them proceed to cast their votes have their serial numbers different from their corresponding counterfoils to be left in the booklet.

Nineteen ballot booklets of a total of one thousand nine-hundred ballots were found to contain such anomalies when the NPP Constituency Chairman and other Executives joined the other parties’ representatives to scrutinize the ballot booklets brought to the Juaben/Ejisu Constituency on Friday, 25 November 2016.

The affected booklets were taken to the Juaben police station for keep pending explanation from the Electoral Commission. However, on Saturday, 26 November 2016, early in the morning, Charlotte Osei ordered the police to take the wrong ballot booklets back to Accra with the flimsiest explanation that the non-conforming serial numbers on the back of the booklets were meant for elsewhere hence the anomalies were genuine mistakes. She rendered her heartfelt apologies for the mistakes committed. Does she have a heart anyway? “Tweaaaaa apuut33”!

Charlotte Osei never ceases to amaze me with her continuously, but always detected, plans to rig the upcoming election in favour of the NDC and President “Me be dii bi keke me ntie obiaa” John Dramani Mahama.

President Mahama and NDC have still not understood that God is bringing about a change of government from NDC to NPP on 7 December 2016. They have still not understood how the proverbial “third time lucky” is playing in favour of Nana Akufo Addo.

The big minds are on the ground as vessels of God to ensure that the positive change as has been initiated by God, comes to pass to bring smiles back on the faces of the miserable.

Change is coming and the battle is still the Lord’s!

Stay tuned for more info from Rockson Adofo, a leading member of the “Mahama Must Go” movement.