NPP 'caught' marking NDC supporters as dead

The National Democratic Congress [NDC] is alleging the New Patriotic Party [NPP] is undertaking a "fraudulent" validation of the national voters' register in the Ashanti Region in a bid to disenfranchise legitimate voters.

According to the NDC, agents of the NPP are moving round the Suame Constituency with a copy of the national voters' register and are marking the names of NDC supporters as being dead.

"The National Democratic Congress in the Ashanti Region has for some time now been following certain leads and can now authoritatively say that the New Patriotic Party in its desperation to win power at all cost through the back door, has decided to disenfranchise as many NDC supporters as possible specifically in the Suame Constituency," the party alleged.

Addressing a press conference in Kumasi Thursday, Deputy General Secretary of the NDC Koku Anyidoho, claimed two persons were caught "busily identifying NDC supporters on the national voters register and marking them as dead".

According to the NDC, the NPP intends to present such names to the EC to be deleted from the voters register.

The said persons, Mr Anyidoho claimed, were handed to the Police in Suame but said they have since been bailed by the executives of the NPP in the region, TV3's William Evans Nkum reports.

Evans Nkum reports that two people who the NDC claims, had their names marked as dead by the supposed NPP agents in the fraudulent validation exercise were presented at the press conference with a copy of the said register to prove their claim.

Our correspondent reports that the NDC alleged that there are so many names of NDC supporters that have been marked as dead but the party could not give the exact number of people affected by the supposed validation exercise.
"Agents of the NPP have been caught red-handed with incontrovertible evidence of the evil modus operandi of the so called New Patriotic party. They claim to be democrats yet they are the ones who do all the horrible things that makes democracy walk on its head," Mr Anyidoho said.

Mr Anyidoho argued that having failed to "make sensible case for a new voters register to be compiled so as to enable them [NPP] load that register with minors here in the Ashanti Region", the party has resorted to create a new register in their stronghold by with the view to disenfranchise NDC supporters.

He said there are no laws in Ghana that compel people to register or to vote hence if someone does not confirm his name during a voters register exhibition exercise, that person cannot be said to be dead for which reason his name would be expunged.

"If my name is in the register and you expunge my name from the register without my consent, I can take the EC to court. Now that's the kind of chaos the NPP is trying to create," he added.

The NDC also alleged their members in some parts of the Ashanti Region are being harassed by NPP members. The party particularly mentioned New Edubiase, Adansi Asokwa and Fomena as the areas where such incidents are taking place.
"We will not sit idly by to allow our supporters to be harassed during this year's election," Mr Anyidoho vowed.

Meanwhile, the NPP has rubbished the allegation describing it as propaganda and sheer madness because according to the MP for Suame, Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu, "it beats common sense for anybody to make that allegation."

"Does it lie with any political party to disenfranchise anybody?" he wondered, adding "No! so you see it's a pack of lies; there's no truth in it"