New Voters Register: Let’s bring Accra to a standstill, occupy the EC Office – Afriyie-Ankrah

While many were beginning to be enthralled by the not-too-convincing reasons put forward by the opposition NDC as regards their stiff opposition to the plan to compile a new register for purposes of the 2020 elections and beyond by the Electoral Commission, the ulterior motive behind same has been revealed in a dramatic fashion.

In a meeting held at the party’s headquarters which had all the members of the Functional Executives Committee and other top guns, Director of Elections of the party, Elvis Afriyie-Ankrah, charged the leadership of the party to make concerted efforts to invest heavily in the party’s bid to scuttle the planned compilation of a new voters’ register by the Jean Mensa-led Electoral Commission as failure to do so would be disastrous for the party’s fortunes.

Using Nigeria as an example, Afriyie-Ankrah recounted how Buhari used some Machiavellian tactics to bulldoze his way through the elections which many had predicted he would lose.

“And if we do the analysis properly, we are going to spend hundreds of millions of Ghana cedis or tens of millions of Ghana cedis to do the campaign. If we lose, God forbid, God forbid, God forbid the election, all that money would have gone to waste” Elvis Afriyie-Ankrah said.

Advising the leadership of the party, Mr. Afriyie-Ankrah urged that everything humanly, materially and physically necessary and possible should be done to make sure that the Electoral Commission halts its plans to compile a new voters’ register as that would be used to rig the 2020 elections in favour of the ruling New Patriotic Party.

“If we invest 200,000, 500,000, 1,0000000 Ghana cedis and fight this register, bring Accra to a standstill for once, occupy the EC head office, and we can do it, we have done it before” he said.

Continuing, the Director of Elections of the NDC reminded them of similar undertakings in the past which were successful.

“These are things we’ve been doing even as ordinary students, we brought ministry of finance to a standstill, we brought Ministry of Education to a standstill, we can do it. It is possible. Let’s have confidence in ourselves, please, let’s stop the defeatist attitude we can do it, we can move people and bring this country to a standstill just one day and they will withdraw. They have withdrawn many many many other bills. We can give examples, so it’s not impossible. Whether they pass it in Parliament or not we must resist this. We can do it!”

At a press conference held at the party’s headquarters addressed by their General Secretary, Johnson Asiedu Nketia, the opposition gave reasons why it is against the compilation of a new register.

Among other reasons they articulated, the NDC said that the elections are too close and that the decision contravenes some ECOWAS protocols. They also indicated that the cost involved in the exercise is too much and that the money could be used to build roads and schools.