The opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) has insisted that the Nana Akufo-Addo government has been encouraging voter suppression through ethnocentrism.
The National Communication Officer of the NDC, Sammy Gyamfi who addressed the party’s weekly press briefing at the party’s headquarters referenced recent pockets of violence at some registration centres and developments at Banda where residents in settler communities were allegedly prevented by the military from registering in the voter registration exercise.
“Indeed, we in the NDC have long known about this diabolic and nation-wrecking agenda. As part of our resistance against the compilation of a new voters’ register, we argued forcefully that the EC’s entrenched and unjustifiable decision to compile this register at all cost was part of a grand scheme to help the NPP and President Akufo-Addo to suppress votes and disenfranchise many in NDC strongholds but Ghanaians did not believe us but called on us to produce evidence to back our claims. And so today we will be showing you evidence of some state-sponsored discrimination and unlawful prevention of thousands of Ghanaians belonging to various ethnic groups, including Ewes, Northerners and other non-Akans from registering at various registration centres across the length and breadth of the country.”
“We hope Ghanaians will understand this time the NPP’s clandestine agenda through the ethnocentric agenda to rig the 2020 general election and the danger that harbours for the peace and stability of our beloved country.”
Mr. Gyamfi further expressed the worries of the party in what the NDC claims are happening.
“The NDC is deeply worried and totally aghast at what appears to be a deliberate agenda of tribal discrimination hatched by President Akufo-Addo and the New Patriotic Party to frustrate and disenfranchise Ghanaians of certain tribes from acquiring the voters’ ID cards that will qualify them to exercise their democratic rights to choose a president and Members of Parliament on December 7, 2020.”
Military deployment in Banda threatens peace
Earlier, the General Secretary of the party, Johnson Asiedu Nketia called on the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) to immediately withdraw armed officers from registration centres at Banda in the Bono Region.
Asiedu Nketia said the presence of armed personnel has deterred a lot of people from registering for a voters ID card, a development he believes will disenfranchise a lot of Ghanaians in Banda.
“The problem we have is about ethnic profiling which this government is persistently doing. It threatens the peace of this country. When military men were dispatched to the Togo border, the government explained that they were there to prevent people from entering the country with COVID-19. Talking about the deployment in this area, and targetting the same Ewe ethnic group, is a very dangerous thing that is happening in this country.”
