A crowd of demonstrators who identify themselves as Concerned Citizens of Ghana have demonstrated against the John Mahama-led government and the Electoral Commission of Ghana for the heavily bloated voter’s register with foreign nationals and demanded its replacement before the 2016 general elections. The group has also condemned the unprofessional attitude of the Ghana Police regarding the recent brutalities that they meted out to innocent citizens for standing up for their civil and constitutional rights.

The group, knowing the important role of the international community in nurturing young democracies across the globe, carefully chose the venue and time for their protest to coincide with the Ghanaian president’s visit to the UN General Assembly in New York, which fell on September 30th 2015. This was to draw the attention of the international community to the highly compromised voters register and its tendency to plunge the country into pre and post elections violence, if a new register is not created.

As early as 7.30 AM EST, the protesters had started converging on the 47th Street and 2nd Avenue in Manhattan, defying the morning’s downpour. As the rains got heavier the number of protesters kept increasing, and so was their enthusiasm. By midday, about 200 protesters who had left their jobs and other important things to take part in the protest were escorted to their spot, close to the UN building by officers of the New York Police Department.

Clad in all white T-shirts, the protesters held placards, chanted and sang patriotic songs into the late afternoon. This, as expected, drew the attention of the international media, some of whom interviewed the organizers of the protest. Some of the inscriptions on the placards read, “TWO (2) MILLION GHOST NAMES IN OUR VOTER’S REGISTER IS A FRAUD, NEW VOTER’S REGISTER NOW,” “GHANA’S VOTER’S REGISTER IS ECOWAS. WE WANT A NEW VOTER’S REGISTER FOR GHANAIANS ONLY,” “GHANA CANNOT HANDLE A HUMANITARIAN CRISIS. GIVE US A NEW REGISTER FOR 2016 ELECTIONS,” “STOP POLICE BRUTALITY,” and “GHANA IS NOT A POLICE STATE,” among others.

Speaking to the media, the organizers of this peaceful protest minced no words when they called on the government and the Electoral Commission of Ghana to allow sanity to prevail in the nation’s body politic by giving Ghanaian voters a new and credible register that will ensure a transparent, free and fair elections, and repair the nation’s lacerated democratic image.
On police brutality, they wondered why the constitution, which is the supreme law of the land, had to be outlawed by the police to warrant the kind of brutality that was unleashed on lawful citizens who were just exercising their constitutional rights during the Let My Vote Count protest in Ghana, recently. The group has presented a petition and gory pictures of the Ghana police brutalizing citizens, to the Human Rights Committee of the United Nations.

Concerned Ghanaians-USA has given indication of its intention to stage similar protests with their affiliates across the globe in the coming days and months until concrete steps have been taken by the government and the EC to replace the current voter’s register before elections 2016.


NPP Communication Directorate, New York.
Email: nppnycommteam@gmail.com