Press Release

LMVC

September 21, 2015

September 16th 2015 was a black day for Ghana

September 16th 2015 was a black day for Ghana and a black day for its democracy. It is the day Ghana effectively became a police state.

When a broad church of citizens, who are exercising their democratic right to petition and protest, are fired on by police with tear gas and water cannons, a police state is what Ghana has become.

The protestors were not a ragtag assortment of rabble rousers seeking confrontation. They were a cross-section of Ghanaian society, from a plethora of political persuasions, who had convened to peacefully express their outrage at the joke that is the national voters register.


A voters register that is bloated by its egregious listings of multiple registrations, minors, the deceased, aliens and numerous other anomalies, is not fit for purpose.


It is a serious breach of democratic accountability that rightly alarms all patriotic and concerned Ghanaians and this was the catalyst for the Let My Vote Count demonstration.


The demonstration was a forceful display of "people power", as once again, Ghanaians show that they will not be taken for fools.

Yet, quaking in their boots, the incompetent President and the buffoons that are also known as "the government", unleash the full force of state machinery, in the form of the police, on citizens who were merely expressing their constitutional and democratic right to protest.


This is the type government action that one would have thought was consigned to the days of military juntas. We gather that the said brutalities meted to the peaceful protesters were premeditated by the police.


But alas, in this purported 'democracy', the error-ridden voters register being one of its many flaws, the suppression of the legitimate right to protest is another government tactic designed to divert attention from its own incompetence.

By resorting to such extreme action, the government is proving it is running scared. Why would a government such as John Mahama's be satisfied with a flawed voters register? What does the government stand to gain from a bloated voters register? Why is the government doing everything to oppose the creation of a new and credible voters register? This government, symptomatic of its incompetence, fails to appreciate that the strength of our democracy is dependent on a credible voters register.

We urge all Ghanaians - men, women, young and old - not to be cowed by such police barbarism and government suppression of civil liberties.


Stand strong, we shall overcome. We love this country to a fault that we are willing to sacrifice life and limb to protect the foundation of our democracy. We shall be relentless in the demand for a new and credible voters register and we shall resist oppression with fearless honesty.


In solidarity with the LMVCA and AFAG, Concerned Ghanaians will join their intended march on September 29th . We are at a cross roads in our democracy and we must all stand up to be counted.


Place: Accra
Signed

September 21st 2015

Akwasi Apea Twumasi-Ankra Esq +233541196709

Ofei Dei Goodfellow +233242887777

Atick Yakubu +233244635764