.... the 45 additional Constituencies and Proxy voting?

Many a member of the NDC and less informed Ghanaians are querying why the NPP are against the creation of the forty-five new constituencies. Some are of the opinion that the NPP are simply being mischievous by their relentless efforts to block the creation of the constituencies.

To begin with, the creation of the new Constituencies is shrouded in complicitous agreement between the NDC and the Electoral Commissioner, Dr. Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, to rig the upcoming December 7, 2012 elections. This is an open secret. Only a bigot will pretend not to be aware. Mr. Afari-Gyan, an obstinate septuagenarian from Berekum has not offered Rockson Adofo, an intelligent son from Kumawu any credible reason for creating the additional forty-five Constituencies. He owes me personal explanation on this issue.

What cardinal reasons goaded Mr. Afari Gyan into creating the forty-five constituencies? He says, the Atta Mills-led NDC government has created thirty or so new additional districts therefore, it warrants the creation of new constituencies. Does the Constitution of Ghana oblige the Electoral Commissioner to create corresponding number of new constituencies each time that the government whimsically creates new districts? The answer is a BIG NO. Even though the Constitution mandates him to review the constituencies every seven years or after the conduction, and publication of the results, of population census, such an undertaking is not obligatory. To review does not necessarily mean to increase. The constituencies could be re-demarcated to reflect the population density in either upward or downward trend. However, with biased and mischievous intentions lurking at the back of his mind, he is adamant to fulfill his Constitutional right of creating new constituencies regardless of apparent public skepticism and outcry.

Sensible Ghanaians who are in the majority are equally adamant that time is of the very essence. We are just two months away from election and the Constitutional Instrument (CI 78), that makes it lawfully for creating the new constituencies is yet to mature on 3rd October 2012. What at all is driving Dr Afari-Gyan crazy to defy all odds to create the new constituencies, if it has not to do with his personal evil intentions and that of his accomplice NDC?

Dr. Afari-Gyan continues to drive me mad with his persistent underestimation of our intelligence. He has categorically refused to implement the Representation of Peoples Amendment Law (ROPAL), which empowers Ghanaian residents abroad to vote in national elections organized in Ghana. Nevertheless, as stubborn as he has always been, he is arranging for Ghanaians working in our foreign diplomatic missions (Embassies and High Commissions), with students on Government scholarships studying abroad to vote in the upcoming December 7, 2012 election. Would it not have been proper to allow all willing Ghanaians abroad to vote?

What makes a Ghanaian on private scholarship or own-parent sponsorship studying abroad less a Ghanaian than the one on a government scholarship, same studying abroad? What makes Ghanaian staff on our foreign missions more a Ghanaian than those Ghanaians residing in the same country, but doing their private jobs or on private assignments? Is Afari Gyan by his nonsensical behaviour not trying to disenfranchise some credible Ghanaians? As long as it does not sit well with the NDC for Ghanaians abroad to vote, for their own apprehensive reasons, it is well with Kwadwo Afari-Gyan to do his master's bidding.

I thought old age comes with abundant wisdom but this does not seem to be the case with the Electoral Commissioner, Dr. Kwadwo Afari-Gyan. Truly, he is proving to all that old age is not an indication of wisdom. My silver hair is a repository of wisdom but not the grey hair of Kwadwo Afari-Gyan.

I doubt what at all Kwadwo Afari-Gyan is up to doing. In one breathe; he lauds the biometric voter registration with verification of ones identity. In another breathe; he is rubbishing that costly exercise. I should suggest Ghanaians bundle him to see a psychiatrist.

During the voter registration exercise, many Ghanaians made allegations about foreigners streaming into Ghana from Togo, Benin, Burkina Faso and the Ivory Coast to register. For what reasons did those foreigners decide to register, and to exercise voting rights in Ghana? Concerned Ghanaians raised an alarm but the usual dubious, obstinate and arrogant Electoral Commissioner, Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, turned a blind eye.

It was with great relentless effort and pressure by the NPP that he agreed to implement verification alongside the voter registration. I think recent developments inferred from the attitudinal adamancy of Dr. Afari-Gyan on certain issues indicate he has outlived his importance as a credible Electoral Commissioner. He has come back vociferously insisting on allowing proxy voting in the upcoming December 7, 2012 election.

What is PROXY VOTING at all, one may query? Proxy by definition is "a written authorization empowering another person to vote or act for the signer, as at a meeting of stockholders". This means an absent voter or a voter who may for some reasons cannot appear in person at a polling station on the day of voting can authorize someone to vote for him or her. Ghana usually allows proxy voting but with the new system of voting chosen for December 7, 2012 election, voting by proxy should not be encouraged even if it is feasible. How does one fulfill the cardinal component or pivot on which the biometric registration revolves, thus, the VERIFICATION?

How do we verify the biometric identity of the person authorizing his or her neighbour, friend or family member, to vote in their place? Will this not encourage all the alleged aliens that came in to register on whose secret request only God knows, go in for proxy voting? Furthermore, will this not encourage all those that registered more than once and so have different registration cards under different names go proxy to cast more than one vote during the election?

I wonder why Dr. Afari-Gyan in his parochial mindedness is trying to take Ghanaians for fools. Which University at all awarded him his Doctorate degree? I will check that later on Wikipedia but before then, I want to inform Ghanaians that Kwadwo Afari-Gyan has now become a disgrace onto his family, friends and Ghana. By his disgraceful intransigence bothering on the proverbial "akurase taaman" attitudes, he has negated that vital component (verification), in the upcoming elections.

I say, shame unto him. Nonetheless, I will continue to expose his wicked plans and corruptibility belying his stringent assertion of exercising his Constitutional rights.

Wise people will agree with me but fools will think otherwise. I, today, present before you two conditions, either to choose to be wise, or to elect to remain a fool. The choice is yours.

Join me to campaign to vote out the NDC come December 7, 2012. They are a bunch of disgraced visionless mediocre who cannot be entrusted to rule Ghana any further.

DJ Sources of Sources radio UK FM 96.3, please help me to get this off my chest.

Rockson Adofo