Calls by the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) for a new electoral roll and validation of voters prior to the November 7 elections are a diversion by the party to aid it rig the poll, Mr Johnson Asiedu Nketia, General Secretary of the governing National Democratic Congress has said.

In his view, the posturing of the biggest opposition party in mounting pressure on the Electoral Commission to accede to its demands with regards to the 2016 polls, was a ruse to turn eyes away from the party’s secret plan to compromise the election in its favour.

“You know what, when they are talking like that then it means they want a loophole to exploit to rig the election. I tell you. Looking at their demeanour, they are doing that to divert people’s minds from their plot to rig the poll. That is what all this noise is about. Anyone who knows the NPP well knows that with all the noise it wants to rig the election…that is what everyone in the NDC should beware of.

“This upcoming registration, they are looking for an avenue to bring unqualified persons to register, but they are diverting people’s minds from that first. But luckily for us, with the system of registration – though nothing is perfect – I believe that system will prevent anyone from trying to add any unauthorised name,” Mr Asiedu Nketia said.

The NPP has had its appeals to the EC for a fresh voter roll turned down after a five-member panel appointed to look into the issue and advise the election management body counselled against it.

Speculation has also mounted that the EC is set to go ahead with registration of new voters without implementing a validation of voters as recommended by the panel. That led to a demonstration dubbed ‘Baamu Yadda’ organised by the party in conjunction with other political parties and pro-opposition pressure groups in Kumasi on Thursday April 7.

But Mr Asiedu Nketia, known more commonly as General Mosquito, dismissed the clamour by the NPP when he appeared on Accra100.5fm’s morning show, Ghana Yensom, on Wednesday April 13.

“We all agree that the register is not perfect. But it is credible. The truth of the matter is that you cannot have a perfect register, never. No country can have a register it can call ‘perfect’. The reason is that every register will contain the names of dead people; whatever you do, the names of deceased persons will be included,” he told Chief Jerry Forson on the programme

“Those who are dead, even if their names remain in the register, what makes the register credible is that in this country, because of the system in place, no one can vote in the name of the dead.”

“So, there’s nothing like a perfect voter’s register, but there’s a credible voter’s register, hence I believe our 2014 register is credible. Whatever names will be added to it will also be credible.

“So, those asking us to go compile a new register to remove the names of the dead, they are wasting everybody’s time. Because of the biometric verification requirement, anybody who dies goes with his fingerprint.