Conduct thorough investigations into bloated register -NDC

Kumasi, May 19, GNA-The National Democratic Congress (NDC) has suggested to the Electoral Commission (EC) that any investigation into the national bloated register should include the time the bloating was effected, the people responsible for inflating the figures and in what manner the bloating was achieved. It said other issues which needed to be investigated should include why the bloating took place in Ashanti Region alone and in 13 constituencies where the registration of voters have swelled up to over 100 per cent and what was the motive behind the bloating exercise.

These were among some of the concerns of Mr. Daniel Ohene Agyekum, Ashanti Regional chairman of the NDC expressed at a press conference in Kumasi on Monday on the mode of declaration of 2004 election results, the manipulation of the 2004 presidential results by officials of EC and the bloated national register.

He said from the party's investigations conducted, the Ashanti region was the target and indeed victim of the voter register malpractices saying, "we have confirmed 13 constituencies in Ashanti and Brong Ahafo regions where the registered number of voters have swelled up over 100 per cent".

Mr. Agyekum said the point deserved to be emphasised that the basis for a free, fair and transparent election which would ensure peace and stability in the country must and ought to be a credible register of all those who qualified and eligible to vote in a national election. The Regional Chairman, flanked by other executive members and party activists called on traditional authorities, religious leaders, professional and civil society organizations to join hands to invite the EC to provide a national voters register whose authenticity and credibility would not be in doubt to all stakeholders.

He said; "it is important that we all share the responsibility to ensure that we protect and defend our national constitutional and we therefore invite all political parties to commit themselves to a free, fair and transparent election in which results are declared by the EC which is the only guarantee for peace and stability in the country".

Touching on the manipulation of the 2004 election, Mr. Agyekum explained how the figures obtained by the presidential candidates during the election was manipulated as to give undeserved advantage to the New Patriotic Party (NPP) presidential candidate which enabled him to win. From EC collation result forms which were distributed to the Press, he said the designing of the collation form was such that it facilitated the manipulation of the results by some officials of the EC adding, "you will observe that the columns meant for the headings, name of candidate and the number of vote won by candidate were deliberately left blank". He stressed that this might have been a widespread practice which ensured that the NPP presidential candidate would win the election, wondering why the EC, as an institution, designed the form in such a way as to enable some members of its own staff to engage in this kind of electoral fraud.

He said for the avoidance of any doubt, the format for the collation forms should be designed to conform with the parliamentary candidates and that there should be a wider horizontal space for recording the results in the appropriate columns with a clear indication of name of candidate, votes obtained in figures and in words. 19 May 08