The Regional Secretary for the National Democratic Congress (NDC), James Gunu has opined that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) with support from the Electoral Commission is planning to make it impossible for NDC sympathizers to partake in the EC’s six (day) mop up exercise.
According to him, the EC has changed the initial plan for the mop up exercise of the voter registration on the whims and caprices of the NPP in an attempt to prevent NDC strongholds, especially the Volta Region from partaking in the 2020 general election.
Speaking in an interview on Happy 98.9 FM’s Epa Hoa Daben political talk show with Afrifa-Mensah, James said, “Prior to the voter registration exercise, the EC told us the mop up will be done in the initial clusters in a space of six (6) days. But the NPP has convinced the EC to have the mop at the district offices of the EC and not the registration centres.”
He believes this is a strategy by the NPP with support from the EC to block roads leading to the EC offices and further disenfranchise people in the Volta Region.
“This is a strategy for thugs of the NPP to block roads leading to the EC’s offices. They are doing this because the Volta Region is a stronghold of the NDC and they want to suppress our votes.”
On his authority, there have been so many instances where people travelling to EC’s district offices have been forcefully arrested on claims of being foreign nationals by NPP ‘thugs’. “This is the exact thing they want to achieve by moving the mop up exercise to the EC’s offices,” he said.
He reiterated, “The EC is not going to undertake a mop up exercise in the Volta Region but a mop down is going to be done because roads will be blocked to prevent us from registering.”
James Gunu further alleged that the NPP pay their polling agents to challenge the nationality of residents in the region. “The NPP brings in polling agents from other regions and pay them based on the number of people they challenge. But thanks be to God that when these case go to the district review committee these (polling agents) cannot prove it.”
The politician noted that people in the Volta Region will continue to be Ghanaians and “No one can take our nationality away from us. They will try but their attempts will never work.”