Nana Akufo-Addo and Jean Mensah of the Electoral Commission of Ghana created 6 new regions through a Referendum on the 28th December, 2018.
The Electoral Commission of Ghana had provided a summary of the results of the Referendum held to decide on the creation of six new regions.
According to the summary provided by the EC on December 28, the requirements – 50% of registered voters voting and 80% of the valid voters voting yes – which makes the results valid was met in all the regions.
In that election, Oti Region had 366,481 registered voters and votes cast were 323,708. The threshold greater or equal to 50% for votes cast was 88.33% and threshold greater or equal to 80% was 98.64%.
The above-stated results of the 2018 Referendum on creation of new regions were reported by the Daily Graphic of December 28th December 2018, after Jean Mensah had addressed the Press.
What has changed overnight? They used the same voters register to achieve credible results in a referendum with a 98.64% threshold. The credible register created the Regions.
The Oti Region hence was created and carved out of the Volta Region.
The Electoral Commission’s Provisional Code Book 2019, after a few limited registrations, has estimated registered voters of 563,006 for the Oti Region.
The National Identification Authority also has issued cards to a total number of 239,459 persons as of today and even that most of them haven’t received the real cards.
The current number of people who are likely to be disenfranchised by the NIA in the Oti Region is 323,547, which 57.47%.
Seriously, over 323,457 people can not vote in the Oti Region? Why? Is this fair and equitable?
They all have the rights of Ghanaian citizens as enshrined in the 1992 Constitution of the Republic ot Ghana.
What is the crime of the Oti Region to have a deficit of 323,547? Is it because that region is an electoral stronghold of the NDC?
It will be recalled that in a previous article, I respectfully advised President Akufo-Addo and Jean Mensah that the Electoral Commission of Ghana (EC) will not be allowed by the good people of Ghana to compile a new voters register by using the Ghana Card being compiled by the National Identification Authority (NIA) as a requirement.
Further, I advised Nana Addo and Jean Mensah to be careful with the tangent they are following in other parts of the country.
The same advice goes once again to Akufo-Addo and Jean Mensah to be wary
of the voter register tinderbox they are setting in the Oti Region.
As many Ghanaians are already aware, an improved, upgraded new system was introduced and it changed the face of election in Ghana. It introduced the NO VERIFICATION, NO VOTE system in which every individual could only vote after his/her fingerprint was verified by the system.
The credibility of the Ghanaian voting system was validated in 2012 and 2016 to make Ghana’s democracy enviable across Africa and the world.
In recent days, aggravated tension has mounted between the so-called Independent Electoral Commission and some Parliamentarians over which requisite document is needed before you can vote or be called a Ghanaian?
Observers are worried and are wondering whether the Jean Mensah-led Electoral Commission has colluded with the National Identification Authority and the NPP to disenfranchise Ghanaians, and to a large extent the people of the Oti Region will suffer a huge deficit.
Is it because the Oti Region has been voting en block for the NDC so they must be disenfranchised?
Jean Mensah’s Electoral Commission and Ken Attafuah’s National Identification Authority seemed to have planned to use the Ghana Card as a basic document to be able to get a Ghanaian Voters Identification Card.
Jean Mensah is decreeing that over 323,547 Ghanaians from the Oti Region will not vote in 2020, because they don’t have a Ghana Card as a requirement to register. The question is, are they not citizens?
What has the Oti Region done wrong to the EC and NIA to make them want to revoke their rights to register and vote?
What strategy have the EC and NIA activated to take away the peoples’ electoral fortunes in the Oti Region?
Is there more to it in this amateurish practice of preventing people from exercising the right to vote come 7th December 2020?
Are the people of the Oti Region aware that the EC and NIA want to disenfranchise over 323,547 good people of the Oti Region?
Are they not Ghanaians?
Are they not 18 years and above?
Why are they reducing their total suffrage by cutting them off or it is a plan to DESTROY the NDC stronghold in the Oti Region.
Apart from those who just turned 18 years, majority of them have been voting since 1992 till 2016, and they must vote in 2020.
Jean Mensah and the Electoral Commission don’t have a right to throw them out of the 2020 voters register by virtue of changing the basic requirements of who a Ghanaian is.
If these people don’t have passports and don’t have Ghana Cards, it is obvious they can not register to vote on 7th December 2020.
Why should Jean Mensah and Ken Attafuah decide who qualifies to vote? I wish I knew.
Your guess is as good as mine. They are all in the same soup of vindictiveness and capricious abuse of power
to fulfill their agenda. Look at how the ladle is steering the thick soup. Very slowly; and that means there is trouble ahead.
I will leave you with a famous quote from Adolf Hitler who was a German politician and leader of the Nazi Party; he said
“When you are in the light, Everything will follow you. BUT when you enter darkness, even your own shadow will not follow you”
Nana Akufo-Addo, Jean Mensah and Ken Attafuah remember that power is transient
The people of Oti Region and Ghanaian as a whole must rise up and resist any disenfranchisement.
TT Caternor
La Dadekotopon