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The Electoral Commission shoots down the NPP again
By Dr. Michael J.K. Bokor
Monday, January 4, 2016
Folks, when Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia led a team of NPP elements
to conduct exercises aimed at proving their allegation that
the existing voters register was “bloated” and “incredible”,
they settled on documents that they regarded as substantial.
They spent money and other resources, time, and energy and
thumbed their chests at the end of the exercise. The outcome
was so rich and pregnant with “evidence” that they felt
vindicated and empowered enough to tell the whole world what
they found out.
At a press conference, Dr. Bawumia announced that the NPP’s
team of investigators had done a comparative analysis of the
contents of the voters register of Togo and Ghana and found
out that the names of 76,000 Togolese citizens were in
Ghana’s register as well. These Togolese were Ewes, implying
that the Ghanaian electoral roll was infested. He said many
more, including the outcome of the facial biometric
verification (or recognition?) method used by his team to
establish that the photographs of those voters on the
electoral rolls of both countries were doctored. In other
words, a lot went wrong as far as the NPP was concerned.
That was why the NPP was demanding that a new voters
register be compiled for Ghana to weed out such
undesirables.
As soon as the NPP’s version was announced, the rogue and
book politics by its functionaries took a different turn for
the worse. We heard many insulting comments from them about
Ewes infiltrating the system and corrupting the Ghanaian
electoral process. But the work done by Dr. Bawumia and his
team left many ugly traces behind, which some of us
questioned:
1. What was the primary motivation for choosing the Ewes as
the primary focus for this cross-checking of contents in
Ghana and Togo’s voters register? How about Burkina Faso and
Cote d’Ivoire, where similar factors existed for
cross-border activities by Ghanaians living in those
countries yet exercising and enjoying their birth right in
Ghana as Ghanaians?
2. How possible was it for the Togolese authorities to
release their voters register to the NPP for the kind of
work that it did? Could they also be willing to do same to
any other political party or Ghanaian institution seeking
information thereby?
We monitored the situation with much reservation, especially
considering the roughshod manner in which the NPP people
were doing their politics with these 76,000 illegal Ewe
voters’ issue, especially when some disgruntled NDC
supporters in Northern Volta Region came out to say that
they had been contracted to do the registration of those
Togolese citizens.
As the NPP’s demands heightened, the EC reacted, asking the
party to furnish it with its report on the work done by Dr.
Bawumia and many other issues to facilitate its own
cross-checking of issues to help it determine the way
forward. After much hesitation, the NPP claimed to have met
the EC’s request.
Now, what do we hear? The EC has made it clear that the
NPP’s allegations couldn’t be supported by evidence and that
it will not delete the names of the 76,000 voters in Ghana’s
register just because the NPP is demanding so. The EC says
the law doesn’t allow that line of action. (See
http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/We-can-t-remove-names-of-Togo-nationals-EC-405014).
The EC has also said that the Togolese authorities refused
to release their voters register to the EC when requested.
We know that the EC is more credible a political authority
than the NPP, especially when it comes to dealing with a
sister electoral body in nearby Togo. Here is our question:
If the Togolese authorities won’t release their register to
Ghana’s EC, why would they do so to the NPP? How did the NPP
have access to that register for Dr. Bawumia’s work but
Ghana’s EC couldn’t, even when it officially applied to the
Togolese authorities?
The picture is clear now: The EC will neither compile a new
voters register for Election 2016 nor delete the names of
the so-called 76,000 people that the NPP has alleged are
Togolese nationals illegally registered to vote in Ghana. On
that score, it will be pointless for the NPP to insist on
having its cake while at the same time eating it.
What next for the NPP? Reason demands that campaigning for
votes should be its prime objective. No litigation, street
protests or condemnation of the EC will change the
situation; but true to their nature, they have chosen to
litigate (See
http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/Voters-register-LMVC-to-join-suit-against-EC-405012).
The NPP should stop wasting money on such Quixotic ventures
because it won't gain anything from it. By isolating Ewes
and creating that negative impression about them, what does
the NPP hope to gain from them at the polls? No running of a
fool's errand will give it the political capital it direly
seeks to return to power.
One expects vigilance, not useless militancy, to help run a
free, fair, and transparent Election 2016. It is interesting
to learn that a room-to-room campaign approach has been
adopted and is being used in the Manhyia constituency.
Campaigning for the hearts and minds of the electorate
should take precedence over sterile approaches involving
militancy and insults. What will win electoral victory
depends on convincing messages to the electorate about how
the NPP will solve the very problems that its members have
characterized President Mahama as “incompetent” in not
solving. Then, and only then, will they be making hay while
the sun shines. Otherwise, they will be torn into shreds
again.
I shall return…
• E-mail: mjbokor@yahoo.com
• Join me on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/mjkbokor
to continue the conversation.
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