Against Using Load-Shedding To Rig Dec. 7 Polls

The National Youth Leader of the Progressive People’s Party (PPP), Divine Nkrumah, has disclosed that the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) in desperation to win next month’s general elections has planned to use the current energy crisis to rig the December 7 polls.

According to Mr. Nkrumah, they [the youth of the PPP] are appalled and suspicious at the announcement by the managers of the country’s power generators that the load-shedding will end in December, the month in which the election will be held and not end of November, adding that they are ‘reliably informed’ that the NDC intends to use the current energy crisis to rig the elections.

Mr. Nkrumah gave this warning while addressing members of the party in Bukoum in the Odododiodio constituency in the Greater Accra Region last Monday.
He cautioned that the President Mahama led-NDC administration to, as a matter of urgency, desist from that diabolical move, stressing that any attempt by the ruling NDC to rig the December 7 polls would not augur well for the country’s democratic dispensation.
“We are concerned and alarmed by the news that the load-shedding will end in December, the month in which the general elections of the country will be held. This election will make the use of the biometric registration system, which involves the use of biometric technologies with the use of computers, fingerprint scanners and digital cameras…this equipment use electricity, and as such load-shedding during such a period cannot be tolerated,” the PPP youth leader noted.
According to him, the load-shedding exercise could sabotage the election and lead to chaos if care is not taken, noting that some ‘canny politicians and political parties’ could take advantage of the situation and tamper with the equipment or voting results.
The livid Mr. Nkrumah described as a totally ‘preposterous’ the widespread recent ‘disparaging remarks’ made by President Mahama at the Institute of Economic Affair (IEA) Presidential Debate in Tamale that the erratic and rampant spates of “light off” that has hit the country was “an act of God.”

President Mahama explained that the dropping of an anchor by a ship, which in turn ruptured the gas pipeline which supplied gas to the Asogli Power plant, was caused by “an act of God” and not the NDC and as such pledged that his administration will end the load-shedding exercise by 2013.

The PPP youth leader in response to this described President Mahama as a ‘failed leader’ since according to him, the attempt to rationalise the load-shedding has rather brought untold hardships on the lives of Ghanaians and industry.
Against this backdrop, the PPP youth leader called on government to, immediately put in contingency and extra-efforts to ensure that the load-shedding ends before December, lamenting that the unemployment menace in the country has been worsened by the off-peak load-shedding exercise which occurs around 6 AM to 6 PM.

“The load-shedding has affected business operators, and as a consequence many have made losses which in turn compelled them lay off some of their work force,” he bemoaned. Mr. Divine Nkrumah therefore urged Ghanaians to vote massively for PPP to ensure that load-shedding becomes a thing of the past.

Divine Nkrumah
National Youth Cordinator
0200-529563