Opinions of Monday, 24 August 2020

Columnist: Johnson Addai-Asante

End of voter registration and matters arising

Jean Adukwei Mensa, EC chair Jean Adukwei Mensa, EC chair

Now the voter registration exercise is over. The seemingly substantiating argument by the government to spend over a billion cedis to undertake this needless exercise was that the old register was over blotted (courtesy of Bawumia in opposition then) with foreign names and so was not credible for the 2020 elections.

The so-called over blotted register had 16 million registrants. Again, the government, hiding behind its poisonous intentions, claimed that this 16 million registrants was inconsistent with the population size of Ghana, hence the need to compile a new one.

By the way, can we conclude that since the president was voted into power with a register which was not credible, his office and all his uncountable ministers are equally not credible?

We are done with this exercise and now have about 17 million registrants in this new register. Common sense suggests that all dead people’s names in the old register were replaced with new voters who had turned 18 years at the time of the registration and also that there were no foreign names in this ‘holy’ register (since it was compiled by ‘angels’).

Thus, it is expected that the new register should reflect a total number consistent with the population of Ghana. (Which by implication should be equal to or less than the condemned 16 million) because Ghana’s population had not changed significantly since 2016: considering death and birth rates at the time.

Unfortunately, the new register is made up of 17 million voters: 1 000 000 names more than the old total registrants. The implication is that this new register is super over blotted and hence, again not credible for the 2020 elections (reasoning based on the government’s own assessment).

In fact, the government owes an unqualified apology to the people of Ghana for wasting scarce resources of the country in the conduct of the exercise. Secondly, Bawumia should personally render an unconditional and unqualified apology to Ghanaians for lying to the whole world with his bogus facts which in fact necessitated this uncalled for exercise.

The Electoral Commission(EC) boss had the audacity after the exercise to complain this time round again that the new register too contains minors and foreign names. Quite ridiculous indeed. This is more than an admission that the work she did was needles and thus, has caused financial loss to the state and should together with the president and his vice be persecuted according to the law of Ghana. In fact any government that takes power from the NPP should take note of this and ensure that these individuals are tried and punished for this loss to the state.

Frankly speaking the figures emanating from the new register give no credence to the claim that the old register was over blotted and for that matter not credible. It was a figment of New Patriotic Party(NPP)’s imagination in opposition that the old register was over bloated and not credited for election because they had been performing poorly in the Volta and the Northern regions.

They therefore hatched a ploy to compile a new register as far back as 2016 when Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia jealousy made those claims. This is why as soon as they came to power they displayed their incessant desire for a new register at all costs by unfairly removing the then EC boss, Charlotte Osei from office so that they can execute their diabolical intentions to gain an advantage over their opponents in the 2020 elections.

In spite of all forms of intimidation persecuted in the border towns and villages to the innocent Ghanaian inhabitants of these settlements with the hope of subduing the numbers of the strongholds of the perceived opponents of the government, the facts revealed by the new register substantiate the credibility of the old register nullifying the otherwise claim that it was over bloated after all.

A big shame unto the government and for that matter Bawumia in particular (whose thoughts are always taken as biblical facts by NPP people without subjecting them to logical analysis based on common sense), as well as all those who believed in this pathological deadly lie.
Think about it.

JOHNSON ADDAI-ASANTE,
KUMASI, ASHANTI REGION