Voter roll: EC wants full control to 'manipulate' results – Ayariga

The Electoral Commission insists on compiling a new register of voters for the December 2020 elections because it wants to have full control over election management system to manipulate the results, a member of the Inter-Party Resistance Against the New Register of Voters, Mr Hassan Ayariga, has said.

“I believe that the main reason the EC wants to change the voter register is because they want to have full control of the management system; when you have full control of the new register’s management system, ‘you can manipulate the results’, you can change the figures when the results come in, you can decide to make anybody president; that is the main reason they are looking for a new register, not because our register is not credible, not because our register is obsolete, not because our register is overstretched, no; they want to have the full management of the new voter register to be able to manipulate and that is why anytime you argue with them, they say: ‘Oh, the other register, we don’t have control over it’.

“Why do you want to have control over it? Because you want to manipulate it; not because it is not credible. Because when you have full control of it, what are you going to do with full control? Garbage in, garbage out”, Mr Ayariga told journalists on Wednesday, 29 January 2020 at a press conference.

The founder and leader of the All People’s Congress (APC) said the media and Ghanaians must, thus, stop seeing the resistance against the EC’s plan, as one instigated by the biggest opposition party, the National Democratic Congress (NDC).

“So, you see, this cause is not just for NDC, no. Don’t forget that we are going into a very critical election, an election where we have two presidents with one term – President Mahama got one term, President Nana Akufo-Addo at the moment has one term; both of them are looking for a second term and then we have [us], Hassan Ayariga and the other leaders, too, looking for a new term. Do you think it is going to be easy for anybody to accept a new register that will compromise the election?

“How sure will you be that the NDC will accept the results if President Mahama doesn’t win or Nana Addo or Hassan Ayariga? The devil we know is better than the angel we don’t know. This register has changed two presidents; they [both] agreed and accepted it. I’m sure they can go in for the next election without any doubt, so, let us not be complacent in this matter, let us not see it as a fight for minority parties with the NDC, this is a fight for every Ghanaian, we want a peaceful election, we want a transparent election, we do not want a chaotic election and chaotic results”, Mr Ayariga added.